Scotty Joe Weaver (March 26, 1986 – July 22, 2004) was an 18-year-old murder victim from
Bay Minette, Alabama
Bay Minette is a city in and the county seat of Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 8,044.
History
In the first days of Baldwin County, the town of McIntosh Bluff (now in Mobile County ...
, whose burned and partially decomposed body was discovered on July 22, 2004, a few miles from the mobile home in which he lived. He had been beaten, strangled and stabbed numerous times, partially decapitated, and his body doused in gasoline and set on fire..
The Baldwin County
District Attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...
, David Whetstone, stated that Weaver's sexual orientation was a factor in the crime. He remarked that the brutality involved "is suggestive of overkill, which is not something you see in a regular robbery and murder." Alabama's
hate crime
A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...
s statute does not apply to people targeted because of their sexual orientation.
Three people were charged with capital murder and robbery in connection with the crime, two of whom were Weaver's roommates: Christopher Gaines, aged 20, Nichole Kelsay, aged 18, and Robert Porter, aged 18. Nichole Kelsay had been Weaver's friend throughout most of his life.
In May 2007, with Judge Langford Floyd presiding, Christopher Gaines pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole; he is serving his sentence at
Holman Correctional Facility
William C. Holman Correctional Facility is an Alabama Department of Corrections prison located in Atmore, Alabama. The facility is along Alabama State Highway 21, north of Atmore in southern Alabama.
The facility was originally built to house ...
in Atmore. Porter pleaded guilty to murder and first degree robbery in September 2007, and received two consecutive life sentences; he is serving his sentence at
William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility
William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility is an Alabama Department of Corrections prison for men located in unincorporated Jefferson County, Alabama, near Bessemer.Bessemer. Kelsay pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for conspiracy to commit murder.
This crime was featured in ''
Small Town Gay Bar
''Small Town Gay Bar'' is a 2006 documentary film directed by Malcolm Ingram that focuses on two gay bars in the rural deep Southeast United States, one in Shannon, Mississippi, and one in Meridian, Mississippi. The documentary was produced by V ...
'', a 2006
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
depicting the difficulties of being gay in the rural South.