Texas authorities have arrested 19-year-old Hermilio Moralez on murder charges after allegedly beating to death his friend of five years Joshua Wilkerson, 18, and burning his body after Wilkerson supposedly made sexual advances toward the teen during a ride home from school.
Confessing to beating Wilkerson (pictured, left) with a large wooden stick, Moralez says his Pearland’s Pace Institute classmate stopped moving after the beating — but it was in self-defense, since Wilkerson supposed grabbed the wooden rod first. Wilkerson had been missing since yesterday after failing to come home from school. When Moralez was leading police to the body, which was found with hands and feet bound, officers say he lunged for a cop’s gun and had to be restrained. Cue gay panic defense. “While this is not the end that we had hoped for, we had to know something,” says Joshua’s mother Laura. “They have helped us to bring a little sense of closure for us.”
An absolute nightmare.
MR
The gay panic defense is crap, but particularly here. Perhaps he’d have a case if he responded reflexively to the alleged “sexual advances,” grabbed the “large wooden stick,” and beat him in a fit of rage–and maybe it helps his story to say Wilkerson grabbed the stick first–but at what point during this crime of passion does he pause to bind the victim’s hands and feet?
Aaron in Honolulu
@MR: Good point. The police have already said that his story doesn’t add up and that he also tried to grab a cop’s gun. These facts lead us to believe, whether he has suppressed homosexual feelings or not, that he more likely murdered Wilkerson out of hateful rage and is using a defense claim to cover his mistakes.
FreddyMertz
I don’t know if that defense will stand. He had the presence of mind, after the beating, to bind his legs and set the body on fire(other news outlets have reported). There was a break in this so called “rage”..and they have been friends for five years..hmmm..my BS meter is sounding off.
peteNsfo
What baloney… imagine the world if women could beat a man to death for unwanted advances!
It is a hybrid of homophobia, prejudice & ignorance that allows ANYONE to remotely consider this explanation as plausible in the slightest.
Grow up, people. It’s a kiss, not anthrax!
Devon
If he didn’t like those advances I’m sure he’ll love prison…
AL
No, he doesn’t deserve to spend his life in prison on taxpayers’
money. Just execute his ass, Texas-style!
HoustonBoi
I live 5 miles away from the victim. This type of hatred towards gay men is everywhere but seems to be more intense in the Houston area. But being in Texas, this the norm and it’s so sad. May the victim rest in peace and the accused burn in hell.
Red Meat
“He used to carry around a bible last year”
Need I say more?
Rob Moore
@Devon: It is in Texas. He is just as likely to get the death penalty. Even if his friend was gay, white Texans take a really dim view of a nonwhite person killing a white person. Who is to say the whole thing was actually in response to sexual advances from his friend. The real motive could be something else, and he is claiming gay panic as a red herring.
ATNNT
Strangely, the two were friends for the last five years. Huh?
Stephen Thorn
Why is it that you very rarely hear of a case where a woman beats and/or kills a heterosexual man who makes unwanted sexual advances toward her? Why do(supposedly)straight men feel as if the “gay panic” defense excuses something countless women have had to put up with since the beginning of the human race? Sexual harassment is wrong under any conditions ( straight vs. straight, gay vs. gay, or gay vs. straight ); I’m certainly not condoning having to endure unwanted sexual advances of ANY sort- but there seems to be a real disparity at play here in terms of permissable societal if not legal defenses, especially in certain politically conservative states… the “gay panic” defense needs to be not even up for any sort of consideration, no matter what the circumstancial evidence indicates.How any rational human being could even debate that unwanted sexual advances warrant being beaten to death and then having the perpetrator’s dead body set on fire is beyond my comprehension. If this ludicrous justification held true for hetero men who made unwanted passes at women, there would be multitude upon multitudes of dead straight guys whose bodies were burned beyond recognition…
j
@Stephen Thorn: @peteNsfo: Comments like these make me want my like button back.
jason
Hermilio Moralez is a piece of shit who should be flushed down the toilet into a sewer en route to a river infested with piranhas.
Comixbear
I wonder if it will take a case of a lesbian killing a man in ‘heterosexual panic’ for the bullshit of this type of defense to be pointed out by the straight community?
steve
He’s young and cute…
should do well in prison.
AdonisFire
WTF? I doubt that cute boy would have made sexual advances on that ugly beaner.
Mysanthropic Destiny
Disgusting. Its hard not to respond in kind with hatred as well. But to be able to kill, especially a friend of 5 years? What. The. Fuck. Theres something…wrong with such an individual. As to what it is, I do not know what, but hopefully justice is carried. out. Though i doubt it.
Cyberia
@Red Meat: Somehow “thou shalt not kill” got lost in mistranslation… then we have the ironic imagery of a bible in one hand and a wooden stick in the other…
Cranston Cranium
This is reliving the senseless Matthew Shepard murder. It appears to be a case of premeditated, aggravated murder? His story makes no sense for the attrocity level he put Josh Wilkerson’s body through.
Hermilio, remember “an eye for an eye”. Wishing you a slow painful death!
scott ny'er
@peteNsfo: What a great point about woman and sexual advances.
How terrible. I feel so bad for Joshua. I hope there is some type of afterlife and he’s doing ok there.
Hilarious
The comments under the article are almost as gruesome as the murder itself.
Some hateful little shits out there on the internet. Way to prove you’re nothing like that guy.