It seemed as though William Brown Jr. was actually pleased with his two life sentence for the murder of Ryan Keith Skipper. The 23-year-old was smiling and laughing while he was fingerprinted after his sentence was handed down by Judge Michael Hunter last month.
Authorities say Brown plotted with Joseph Bearden to beat and kill Skipper in March 2007, stabbing him nearly 20 times on a rural road in Polk County. Prosecutors argued that the two men wanted to steal Skipper’s car and pegged him an easy target because of his sexuality.
A jury found Brown guilty of first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon in early November. Prosecutors argued that Brown and Bearden, who was sentenced to life in prison last spring, targeted Skipper because he was gay. The jury found Brown guilty after a week-long trial and several hours of deliberation.
The high-profile case has garnered national attention and Lynn and Pat Mulder, Skipper’s parents, were on hand when President Barack Obama signed the Matthew Shepard Act adding sexual orientation into hate crimes legislation into effect in early November.
The Mulders, who attended both the trials of Brown and Bearden on a daily basis, were relieved that the process was finally over.
“I hope we never have to sit in another courtroom again the rest of my life,” said Pat Mulder.”
But just because the trials surrounding their son’s murder are finally wrapped, that doesn’t mean the couple won’t continue focusing on LGBT equality.
“We’ve got a lot of things to do to continue to promote equality for all people,” Lynn Mulder said.
For Equality Florida’s Brian Winfield, Skipper’s murder ended three lives, not just one.
“These are three young Florida men whose lives are ended in one way or another,” Winfield said. “There is no joy, no celebration, no closure, but there was justice and that’s something.”
Winfield said he has grown close to the Mulder family since offering support through Equality Florida and said that sometimes he forgets he never knew Skipper personally.
“I feel like I know him as well as I know his friends and family members,” Winfield said. “Maybe that just goes to show how much we carry our loved ones with us.”
After the sentencing of Bearden earlier this year, the Mulders expressed thanks to those involved in the prosecution of both men accused of the killing.
“We would like to thank the State Attorney’s Office and especially Mr. Castillo for consistently striving to uncover the truth and seek justice for our family and for Ryan,” Pat Mulder said after the verdict. “We want to thank the detectives of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, who worked diligently and showed compassion to our family.”
But according to Winfield, that compassion was slow in coming. After the initial reports of Skipper’s murder, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd eluded that Skipper had somehow put himself in harms way because of questionable behavior, which was far from the truth.
“Ryan’s friends reached out to Equality Florida in the days and weeks after his murder because they saw an injustice and refused to sit idly by while the media-seeking Polk County Sheriff recklessly blamed Ryan, in part, for his own death and soiled the one thing he had left—his reputation,” Winfield said. “Accusations were stated as facts—it didn’t matter that the killers were the only source and they would say anything to minimize their atrocity.”
In the shadow of those unfounded accusations, which claimed Skipper was either looking for drugs or sex, most of the media stayed far away from Skipper’s story.
“I doubt we would even know the name ‘Matthew Shepard’ if Grady Judd had been the sheriff in Laramie, Wyo.,” Winfield said.
The Mulders made a public plea for the community as a whole to judge people by their abilities and character rather than differences, following the verdict in Bearden’s case.
“We are all human beings and we all deserve the right to pursue happiness, to have a job, to be parents either naturally or by adoption, to be in a committed loving relationship which is legally recognized, to serve our country in the military openly and honestly with pride,” Pat Mulder said. “We want the public to know the devastation hate crimes inflict is not only on the individual victim but their families, friends and the entire community. We will always cherish our memories of Ryan. We along with countless others will continue to honor Ryan by always standing up for truth, honesty and equality for all.”
Since the murder occurred in 2007, well before the Matthew Shepard Act was signed into law, neither Bearden nor Brown were faced with hate crime charges. The law is not retroactive.
