A Portland, Maine jury has found a gay
activist guilty of manslaughter, CBS News reported.
Malcolm Bruce LaVallee-Davidson, a
farmer and avid gun collector, told police he accidentally killed
Fred Wilson in the basement of the victim's South Portland home
during an April 22, 2009 12-hour-long drug and sex fueled party that
included three men.
The third man, James Pombriant,
testified that LaVallee-Davidson pulled the trigger of a .44 caliber
Rossi revolver pointed at Wilson's head as he participated in a sex
act in the victim's basement dungeon.
“I think I killed him,”
LaVallee-Davidson said after he shot Wilson in the head, Pombriant
testified.
Fifty-year-old LaVallee-Davidson said
he did not intend to kill his friend, explaining that he checked to
ensure the gun wasn't loaded twice during the night.
Defense lawyers said it's likely
Wilson, who pleaded with LaVallee-Davidson to pull the trigger,
loaded the gun at some point during the night.
Social conservatives have decried the
trial's lack of national media coverage. They contend the
left-leaning media has kept quiet on the trial because of
LaVallee-Davidson's participation in lobbying for a gay marriage law
in Maine.
“Let's pretend that it was a married
Christian who got up and made the impassioned plea against same-sex
marriage,” Joseph Farah wrote at the conservative website World Net
Daily. “It later turned out he had killed a prostitute with whom
he was cavorting in a stupor induced by the use of drugs and alcohol.
… The three major networks would be covering it along with the
cable news shows.”
“That's the double standard we face
in trying to figure out what's really going on in our world,” he
added.
LaVallee-Davidson faces up to 30 years
in prison.