The Motive
On January 31, 2005 Hirte's attorney said that Hirte had homosexual urges that intensified when he drank alcohol. Those urges, Boyle said, led to a sexual encounter between Hirte and Kopitske, after which Hirte's rage over the encounter led him to return to Kopitske's house and kill him. Boyle said that Hirte could not explain the murder for months, until a forensic report suggested a possible sexual element to the crime. Hirte then "broke down" and told the story of what he said happened between him and Kopitske.
"One of the torments he had," Boyle told the jury about Hirte, was that "he didn't understand his own sexuality."
Hirte said that hours before the murder he had been sitting on top of his car, underneath a bridge, drinking alcohol and listening to Nirvana. He'd finished six malt liquors and 15 shots of vodka when Kopitske drove up in his car. Hirte said Kopitske flirted with him, and the two agreed to return to Kopitske's house where Hirte performed oral sex on Kopitske. According to Hirte, their encounter was consensual.
Hirte testified that afterward he returned to his car and fell asleep. When he awoke, he was sober and enraged about having had sex with another man. Hirte said he felt "just grossed out beyond belief, disappointed ... the proof of my imperfection that I had done these things." He said he believed a homosexual act was "not as bad as raping or torturing someone" but was worse than murder.
Expert witness for the defense, John Liccione, said that Hirte was in the middle of a psychotic depressive reaction, though he had no history of mental problems. Assistant District Attorney Michelle, emphasized that the sexual encounter did not come up until trial, asked Liccionne during cross examination if Hirte would rather have had his parents believe that he was a cold-blooded killer or a homosexual. Licionne answered that it would be very difficult for a teenager in a religious family to admit homosexual feelings or activities.
Hirte's parents believed their son's story about a sexual encounter with Kopitske, and that he would have been willing to risk life imprisonment to keep that secret to himself. Kopitske's parents said later that there was no way the sexual encounter Hirte talked about had happened.
District Attorney Bill Lennon doubted that the sexual encounter happened, and said that no forensic evidence suggested a sexual encounter.
Read more about this topic: Murder Of Glenn Kopitske
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