A US judge has sentenced Glen Race, the man accused of murdering two gay men in the Halifax area in 2007, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The bodies of Michael Knott and Trevor Brewster were discovered within days of each other in May 2007.
“Both victims were gay men who were known to frequent cruising areas in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM),” deputy chief Chris McNeil of the Halifax Regional Police said during a news conference at the time. “We are issuing a public advisory for potential safety concerns in cruising areas in the HRM.”
Police issued an unprecedented advisory warning men to stay away from gay cruising areas. Gay Haligonians were hounded by the mainstream media.
“They kept asking me, ‘What about these risky behaviours?’” Halifax activist Hugo Dann told Xtra. “That was always their focus; gays cruising and the murders rather than homophobia. Getting them to talk about homophobia was like pushing a rock up a hill.”
After the murders of Knott and Brewster, Race fled to the US. While passing through a secluded area of upstate New York, he brutally murdered Darcy Manor by shooting him in the back with a hunting rifle, then dragging him behind Manor’s own truck.
Race was finally caught on May 15 near the Mexican border at Brownsville Texas. He had Manor’s rifle and other personal possessions with him. Manor’s truck was found a short distance away.
Three hundred people attended a rally in Halifax on May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia.
Race was eventually extradited from Texas to New York were he was convicted on Jan 15 of this year of Manor’s murder.
Prosecutors in Nova Scotia are still hoping to have Race extradited to Canada so he can stand trial for the murders of Brewster and Knott, but that may never happen.
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