Source: Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- As part of the so-called "gay panic" defense being used to explain the actions of accused killer Steven Scarborough, his lawyer planned to show there was a connection between victim Victor Manious and a friend of the accused -- a person described as being "up to his eyeballs in this crime."

 

Defense attorney Paul Denenfeld said in his opening statement to the jury that 19-year-old Justin Robinson played a major role in the alleged murder of Manious, a 62-year-old found dead in a car trunk in downtown Grand Rapids.

But Monday in Kent County Circuit Court, Robinson emerged seemingly unscathed from cross-examination by Scarborough's lawyer, never wavering from his version of events.

Scarborough, 22, stands charged with felony murder. His defense lawyer told jurors that Robinson coordinated the events leading to Scarborough allegedly beating Manious with a baseball bat, then leaving him in a car trunk where he died.

But Robinson testified Friday that Scarborough admitted hitting Manious with a baseball bat and killing him. He said that he and Scarborough were staying at his apartment in late July when the two of them beat and robbed a Peruvian man who Robinson had met at a local bar.

One night later, Scarborough told him one of the men returned and that Scarborough had beaten him badly with the bat. Robinson said he saw Scarborough with Manious' credit cards and claims the alleged killer believed he could get away with murder. 

Carlos Barbaran, a Peruvian immigrant, told jurors last week that Scarborough and two of his friends viciously assaulted and robbed him the two nights before Manious was killed.

Barbaran said he and two friends were bar hopping the night of July 27 and ended up at Rumor's, a gay bar in downtown Grand Rapids, where they met Robinson, who asked for a ride home.

After Barbaran, who is married, took another of his married friends to get his car, they returned to Robinson's apartment.

Once there -- due to the promise of a party -- Barbaran testified that Scarborough appeared along with an unidentified male, who became aggressive and then beat Barbaran up as he tried to get to his car where his sleeping friend waited.

"They said 'give me your money, bitch,' " said Barbaran, who denied the contention of defense attorney Paul Denenfeld that the reason the men went there was because Robinson had promised to provide cocaine.

Barbaran denied that any sexual advances were made. His friends from that night also denied that cocaine was the motive for returning to Robinson's apartment.

Barbaran testified that he called 911 but was told that police were too busy on multiple calls of shootings and stabbings that night and so they never responded to his plea for help.

In his opening statement, Denenfeld said it was Robinson who moved Manious' body from the apartment where he was bludgeoned into the trunk of the Toyota, where the body was discovered last July in a parked car.

However, Robinson said he was asleep the night it happened. Although he picked Manious out of a photo lineup, claiming the Egyptian looked like a Peruvian he had been in a fight with one night earlier, he said Monday he had never before seen Victor Manious.

"I never met him a day in my life," Robinson said. "Not once."

This contradicts Denenfeld's theory that the reason Manious showed up at Robinson's apartment was because he had been there before during a rendezvous with the younger man.

Scarborough made multiple statements to police in Texas, where he was arrested after allegedly using Manious' credit card to buy airline tickets, gas, clothes, beer and fried chicken.

Robinson's former girlfriend, 22-year-old Sarah Jennings of St. Joseph, testified about the weekend that Scarborough visited Grand Rapids from his native Tennessee and his use of credit cards the accused claimed were given to him by a girlfriend he had met while bar-hopping. She identified the blood-stained jeans and T-shirt as those worn by Scarborough on the day after police say the 62-year-old church leader and business manager was bludgeoned.

Denenfeld claimed it was Robinson who called the shots, advising Scarborough to dispose of the body and then to get out of the state. However, Jennings said she is a light sleeper and that she never felt Robinson leave her side the night the fatal assault occurred, although she woke up to find Scarborough on the couch at her third-floor apartment even though she had locked the apartment door.

Denenfeld alleges it was Manious who first knocked out and then sexually assaulted Scarborough, who was so distraught by the event that he lashed out violently at his attacker.

Full article: Friend of murder suspect Steven Scarborough testifies he didn't know victim Victor Manious | Grand Rapids Press
Defense: Suspect's friend behind Manious slaying | Grand Rapids Press 
Witness testifies that he had violent encounter with Steven Scarborough two days before Victor Manious was killed | Grand Rapids Press