Two people convicted in the torture and murder of Sam Nordquist received the maximum sentence Tuesday, coming face to face with his family before being sentenced to life in prison without parole.

CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. (WHAM) — Two people convicted in the torture and murder of Sam Nordquist received the maximum sentence Tuesday, coming face to face with his family before being sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Precious Arzuaga and Jennifer Quijano are the first defendants to be sentenced in the killing of Nordquist, 24, a transgender man from Oakdale, Minnesota, who traveled to the Finger Lakes region in September 2024 and stayed at Patty’s Lodge in Hopewell.

Authorities said Nordquist was tortured from Jan. 1 to Feb. 2, 2025, before his body was found in a Yates County field Feb. 13, 2025.

  • TheMuffinMan@piefed.worldEnglish
    1036·
    2 days ago

    Good.

    Nothing in the article indicates this was a hate crime; why is ‘transgender’ in the headline and every other mention of Nordquist?

    • diablicja@lemmy.zip
      211·
      2 days ago

      A lot of well meaning people try to bring attention to the disproportionate violence against lgbtq people by highlighting every case where an lgbtq person is a victim of a crime. I think this is the wrong approach because

      1. There’s already staggering numbers of people victimised for no other reason than being lgbtq
      2. Including cases where it’s arguably not a factor (I don’t know if this was such a case but it seems so at first glance) weakens the argument and opens it to attacks from people who would gladly pretend it isn’t happening.

      But then again when you see this kind of news and your first instinct is to discuss the importance of the victim being transgender, you don’t come across as well meaning, so that’s probably why you’re being downvoted to hell

      • TheMuffinMan@piefed.worldEnglish
        6·
        10 hours ago

        Thank you for your input. That checks out.

        Re my comment, I’m literally trans! I commented on it because it would fucking suck if that’s how I’d be reported on in a similar situation. It’s so reductive.

        Edit: I see that my original comment has been removed. That is deeply disappointing.

    • Axiochus@lemmy.world
      132·
      2 days ago

      From the Wiki, there are at least some lgbtq advocacy groups who have advocated for this to be classified as a hate crime. That said, the prominent feature of the victim’s gender status does imply that this was perpetrated by cishet people, which seems to not have been the case.

      • TheMuffinMan@piefed.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 day ago

        Thanks.

        I don’t think every crime perpetrated against an LGBT person is necessarily because they’re LGBT; reporting like this is dishonest to advocacy causes and reductive to the victim.

        I realise that my comment was likely misinterpreted to get nuked by the mods, but if anything happened to me and the news was all “HE’S TRANS BTW” at every opportunity… well, it would hurt, if I were still alive. I’m a regular person.