THIS IS THE FACE OF HATE ...PISARCIK

My friend and fellow comedian Simone Campbell posted this on Facebook and I felt it bore repeating: I will not stand by while the people in my community are being killed. Think we can afford to keep our collective heads in the sand? Think again. For more about a wonderful memorial that honors our heroes, go to www.gayamericanheroes.com.


I copied and pasted the facts of this horrific crime from The LGBT Hate Crimes Project:

THIS IS THE FACE OF HATE ...PISARCIK

Narcisso P. Leggs, Jr. (1949 - June 31, 2002), a gay man, was tortured and murdered by Gregory Michael Pisarcik. Pisarcik, according to court documents, was looking for a gay man to rob when he met Leggs. Upon capture, Pisarcik confessed the murder to police and asked not to be put in a cell with another man because he hated “fags.”

The BackgroundNarciso P. Leggs Jr.
At the time of his murder, Leggs, 53, was retired from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, where he had worked for 22 years.1) He lived in a converted garage apartment in an unincorporated area between Tustin and Santa Ana. Neighbors often saw Leggs polishing his two prized automobiles — a white Lincoln Town Car and a mauve Rolls-Royce.2)

Gregory Michael Pisarcik

Pisarcik was originally from New Jersey. According to court documents, he was raped by a man at the age of 12. He started drinking alcohol and using drugs — including cocaine, heroin, LSD and PCP — soon afterwards.3)

Pisarcik lived in the Huntington Beach area and had many misdemeanor convictions for theft and narcotics violations.4) In 2000 he was sentenced to 60 days in the Ventura County jail5), on charges of grand theft and embezzlement, for the theft of an Ojai businessman's truck and $3600 in cash in 1999.

The Murder

Leggs and Pisarcik met at Laguna Beach and went back to Leggs' apartment, stopping to buy vodka along the way.

At Legg's apartment, Pisarcik grabbed an unopened bottle of champagne and started bashing Leggs' head. At some point he tied Leggs up. He asked where Leggs kept his money, rummaging the apartment between blows with the champagne bottle.

Pisarcik attempted to strangle Leggs. With a pair of scissors, he cut off both of Leggs' ears. Pisarcik then stomped on Leggs' testicles, urinated on him, and shoved a large flashlight deep into Leggs' rectum.6) Forensic evidence (including blood on the refrigerator) later showed that Pisarcik stopped to eat Leggs' food, and also took a shower before he left.7)

Finding less than $2, Pisarcik took Leggs' two guns — a .45-caliber and a .357 magnum — and drove off in Leggs' white Lincoln Town Car.8) Before leaving, Pisarcik sat on a bed, over Leggs' corpse, cleaning the guns he would take with him.9)

The Motive

While police said they believed robbery was the motive in Leggs' murder, they also said that Pisarcik had been involved in the robbery of gay men.10)

In custody, Pisarcik told detectives that he hated homosexuals and admitted he'd gone to Legg's apartment to rob him. While he was being transported to the Orange County Jail, he told a deputy: “Don't put me in with the homos. I'm not a homo. That's why I killed him. I'm not a homo.”11)

The Aftermath

Leggs' body was found on June 29, 2002, when his landlord called the police after not seeing his tenant for two days.

An autopsy later revealed that Leggs died from blunt-force trauma to the head.12)

Arrest
At 5:45 p.m. on July 2, 2002, Pisarcik was seen driving Leggs white Lincoln. He was seen exchanging license plates with another white Lincoln, by a young girl who immediately notified her father, who in turn notified the vehicle's owner, who contacted Ventura police.13)

Deputy Robert Davidson spotted Pisarcik in Legg's white Lincoln at 6:46 p.m. A two-hour chase ensued. Pisarcik led police on a chase across several freeways, firing the handgun out the window. During the chase, Pisarcik drove between 20 and 100 miles per hour, swerving across lanes and into oncoming traffic.

A deputy's shotgun blast to a tire disabled the car, which had been blocked by pursuing patrol cars. After a 20 minute stand-off, Pisarcik exited the car and peacefully surrendered.14)

On November 18, 2005, a jury convicted Pisarcik of first-degree murder in Leggs' death. The jury accepted the special circumstance allegations of murder during a robbery and with the penetration of a foreign object, allowing it to be deemed a hate crime.15)

Upon hearing the verdict, Pisarcik was reported to have smiled, nodded, and then chuckled at the jurors.16) Judge Frank F. Fasel sentenced him to life in prison, without parole.17)

In April 2007, the state court of appeals overturned Fasel's sentencing order, and said the state owed Pisarcik two days for time served in the Orange County jail. The court dismissed claims from Pisarcik that his conviction should be overturned based on “insufficiency of evidence.”Pisarcik's sentenced of life without parole a was changed to life plus one year and 363 days.18)