FREMONT -- One of four defendants in the October slaying of a transgender teen pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter Monday and agreed to testify against his friends.
Jaron Chase Nabors, 19, will get 11 years in prison in the slaying of Eddie "Gwen" Araujo under the agreement reached with prosecutors. He had faced a murder charge. His plea came during a preliminary hearing into whether Nabors and the other three should stand trial.
Jose Antonio Merel, 23, Michael William Magidson, 22, and Jason Michael Cazares, 22, still are charged with murder in the beating and strangulation of Araujo at Merel's house in suburban Newark.
About two weeks after the slaying, police say, Nabors led them to the body in a shallow grave in the Sierra foothills about 150 miles east of Newark.
The teen was found buried -- wrists and ankles bound -- in the miniskirt he was last seen wearing while going by the name "Lida."
Prosecutors say the 17-year-old Araujo was killed after Nabors and his three friends found out for sure that the person they knew as "Lida" was biologically male.
Witnesses told police Araujo was beaten, dragged half-conscious into a garage and strangled with a rope, according to court documents.<
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