Murdered in Manhattan

Defense Team Hopes Jury Agrees Gay Professor Died in Sexcapade Gone Wrong

This week, jurors are set to determine just how maliciously Davawn Robinson acted in the death of Edgard Mercado, a CUNY professor he had met at a New York gay bar.

Mercado was discovered strangled to death in his apartment in September of 2009 and Robinson originally claimed the murder was self-defense when he called 911. Once he finished unloading to the 911 operator, Robinson took off, though when he was later caught, he gave the same self-defense story in a videotaped statement.

“It was just either me or him,” he told police. “He had some kind of look in his eye. He just turned towards me. He had the rope in his hand. He never said anything.”

Besides providing them with a confession, Robinson also gave the police a poem he wrote about the incident, titled “I Killed a Man Dead.”

Robinson’s Legal Aid defense team tried to recant their client’s confession mid-trial and instead claim Mercado had wanted Robinson to choke him as part of some S&M sex game.

Though the defense has tried to cast Mercado (left) as some sort of coke-hungry, anonymous-sex-seeking kinkster, they’ve been unable explain why the police were unable to find any sex toys, porn or anything remotely kinky in Mercado’s apartment.

They’ve also been unable to explain why Robinson fled the scene of the crime with Mercado’s phone and computer, why Mercado had bruises and scrapes on his head that a forensic pathologist insisted were the result of a fight, and exactly what kind of freak would write a confessional poem.

Now a jury must decide whether Robinson gets 25-years-to-life for murder, up to 15 years in prison for manslaughter, or a max of four years in prison for criminally negligent homicide.

Guess which charge the defense team is hoping they’ll decide on?

Image via GayCityNews

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