Suspect in gay Puerto Rican teenager’s murder found competent to stand trial
A man accused of brutally murdering a gay Puerto Rican teenager has been found competent to stand trial.
Territorial psychologist Rafael Cabrera reported his findings to Judge Miriam Camila Justino during a hearing in Caguas earlier this morning. Local authorities contend Juan Jos� Mart�nez Matos murdered Jorge Steven L�pez Mercado last November before dumping his decapitated, dismembered and partially burned body along a remote roadside.
"The quest for justice has begun," Pedro Julio Serrano of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force told EDGE in a text message sent from inside the court house.
Local authorities have pledged to prosecute Mart�nez under the territory's hate crimes laws, but activists and elected officials on the island and around the country remain outraged over Gov. Luis Fortu�o's continued silence.
"There are a lot of people who are extremely angry about how the governor has responded to this situation," New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said as she spoke at a fundraiser for L�pez's family at the Nuyorican Poets Caf� on Manhattan's Lower East Side on Tuesday night.
Quinn is among the lawmakers-City Councilmembers Rosie Mendez [D-Lower East Side] and Melissa Mark-Viverito [D-East Harlem,] among others--from the five boroughs and Chicago who will travel to Puerto Rico on Tuesday to meet with L�pez's family and LGBT activists.
"Never doubt that the support from New York and from the community in New York enhances the struggle in Puerto Rico; we saw this with Vieques and we will do it for justice for Jorge Steven L�pez Mercado," Mendez said.