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Man Raped and Murdered Woman because she Vocally Opposed Gay Lifestyle says Defense Lawyer

CHICAGO, November 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last week, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Jim McKay described (homosexual) Chicago man Nicholas Gutierrez's "ferocious" 2002 murder of a pious, 51-year-old Catholic mother of four, Mary Stachowicz,  saying he also raped Mary in addition to stabbing, strangling and beating her, then stuffed her bloody body in a crawl space under the floor of his apartment.

"There is a monster in the courtroom today," McKay said, describing how Gutierrez stabbed Stachowicz so many times that he bent the tip of his hunting knife. Gutierrez then allegedly wrapped her body in sheets and covered her head in a plastic bag before hiding her, as Mary's family and friends searched frantically for her for three days.

After McKay laid out the state's case, including finding Gutierrez's DNA in Stachowicz's vagina and anus, Gutierrez's public defender, Crystal Marchigiani, claimed that it was Stachowicz who attacked Gutierrez: "It happened because she could not leave him alone in his [homosexual] lifestyle."

Marchigiani said that on the day of her death, November 13, 2002, Stachowicz confronted Gutierrez at the Sikorsky Funeral Home where Mary worked and where Gutierrez once was employed. (He lived in an apartment above the funeral home with his male friend, Ray.) She said Mary angrily pressed Gutierrez with the question, "Why do you sleep with boys?" and then followed Gutierrez upstairs to his room before physically attacking him.

All the while, the stocky Gutierrez, who appeared to be about six feet tall, sat in the courtroom. One of Mary Stachowicz's sisters left the room in disgust after hearing Marchigiani launch her shocking defense.

Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera responded: "The Gutierrez defense team's Politically Correct courtroom ploy ought to be called the 'Anti-Homophobe Panic Defense.' Marchigiani's is an ugly attempt to exploit the liberal caricature of Christians who oppose homosexuality as crazed haters with a penchant for aggression.

"So here we see a new defense tactic: stoking the flames of anti-Christian bigotry to save a 'gay' murderer from the punishment he deserves," LaBarbera said.

The trial has received very little coverage in the mainstream press.

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