Brandon Teena Murder Trial: 1995

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Brandon Teena Murder Trial: 1995

Defendants: John Lotter, Marvin Thomas Nissen
Crimes Charged: Murder, kidnap, rape
Chief Defense Lawyers: Lotter: Michael Fabian; Nissen: Peter Blakeslee
Chief Prosecutor: James Elworth
Judge: Robert Finn
Place: Falls City, Nebraska
Dates of Trials: Lotter: May 15-25, 1995; Nissen: February 21-March 3, 1995
Verdicts: Lotter: guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and four other charges; Nissen: guilty of first-degree murder of Brandon Teena and second-degree murder in deaths of potential witnesses Lisa Lambert and Philip DeVine; also convicted of burglary
Sentences: Lotter: death; Nissen: three consecutive life terms

SIGNIFICANCE: Brandon Teena was born a girl. Later Teena decided to change sexual identification, and began to pass as a young man by the name of Brandon Teena. Brandon concealed the fact that he was biologically a woman. When his biological identity was uncovered, two young men who had befriended him as a man forcibly raped him. After Brandon reported the rape to the local sheriff, he did not arrest the rapists. A few days later the two men tracked down Brandon to an isolated farmhouse in Humboldt, Nebraska, where they killed him and two witnesses. Since Brandon Teena had chosen a gender identity different than that he was born with, his murder drew widespread attention. In particular, the transgendered community saw him as a martyr because he chose to be different.

Although born and raised as a girl, Brandon Teena made a conscious choice to live as a man. (Hence the use of the male pronoun to describe him in this entry.) Brandon was originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, and had moved to the Falls City area to take up his life as a man, hoping for an eventual sex-change operation. As a teenager, Brandon had several scrapes with the law over stolen credit cards and forged checks. Brandon passed as a man quite readily, dating a local girl in Falls City, Lana Tisdale, and befriending Thomas Nissen and John Lotter. Brandon would wear a sock in his pants in order to appear more male. John Lotter had previously dated Lana Tisdale.

In December 1993, local police arrested Brandon on a misdemeanor check forgery charge and at that time discovered that Brandon was biologically female. The police released the information. The information was published in the localFalls City Journal. Apparently both Lotter and Nissen, unsure of their own sexual identity, became enraged that Brandon had won the affection of Lana Tisdale. Lotter and Nissen, both of whom had already served time in the state penitentiary on other charges, had been involved in a variety of unhappy relationships, drank heavily, and had floated from job to job. The issues of homophobia, sexual insecurity, and enraged bigotry against those crossing the gender line came into disastrous confluence.

The Rape and Murder

On Christmas Day, 1993, Brandon was raped and assaulted at a Christmas party by two men whom he identified as Nissen and Lotter to Richardson County sherriff Charles B. Laux. The failure of Laux to immediately arrest the two men became an issue. Brandon's sister, Tammy Brandon, called the sheriff's office to inquire why the two had not been arrested, and said that deputies told her the sheriff was collecting evidence. A Falls City police officer told the two men that they were suspects in the December 25 rape. On New Year's Eve, Lotter and Nissen drove about looking for Brandon. They carried a rope and hatchet in their car, and eventually tracked Brandon to a friend's farmhouse in Humboldt. After killing Brandon, they allowed Lisa Lambert to put her baby in a crib before they shot and killed her. Philip DeVine, who was visiting Lambert at the time, pleaded for his life before he was shot at close range.

The Trials

Marvin Thomas Nissen incriminated Lotter, claiming that he had fired all the shots. He later admitted that he had stabbed Brandon to make sure he was dead. At Nissen's trial, Assistant Attorney General James Elworth, serving as special prosecutor in the case, pointed to evidence of premeditation. Nissen told his wife on December 30, 1993, that he was going to get a power of attorney over his children for his mother. Elworth claimed Nissen had done so because he knew he would be in jail and that he would not be able to take care of his children. Elworth showed through testimony that Lotter and Nissen had gone to the Falls City home of Lana Tisdale, and then drove by the home of a local deputy sheriff to make sure he was home and would not disturb them. Wearing gloves, they then drove to the Humboldt farmhouse where Brandon was staying. Had they intended only to frighten or intimidate Brandon, they would not have been wearing gloves, Elworth claimed.

The shootings were conducted in execution style, leaving powder burns on the bodies. Although Nissen said that Lotter did all the shooting, he was also legally responsible. Elworth explained to the jury that they could find Nissen guilty of first-degree murder by several lines of logic. Even if he had not premeditated the crime, committing a murder during the course of a burglary, under Nebraska law, was also first-degree murder.

Lotter's attorney, Mike Fabian, tried to pin Nissen down to admitting that he hated Brandon, and that the rape was inspired by hate. But both Nissen and Lotter denied that they hated Brandon.

Peter Blakeslee, Nissen's attorney, argued that Nissen was less involved in the murders than Lotter, and asked the jurors to consider charges less serious than first-degree murder. He claimed the plan was Lotter's and that Nissen was not sure what they were going to do on the night of the murder.

At Lotter's trial, Nissen testified against Lotter, claiming that Lotter had killed all three of the victims, and told police they had thrown the murder weapons in a nearby river. Lotter never confessed, and he denied any part in the murders, claiming he was asleep in the car while Nissen committed the murders. Lotter's attorney claimed that all the evidence against Lotter was circumstantial and unsuccessfully sought to bar Nissen's testimony.

In February 1996, Lotter was sentenced to death. In May of 1997, Nissen's appeals were turned down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gender Issues

The Brandon Teena story became a national issue in the gay, lesbian, and transgendered communities. Since Brandon was essentially scorned, raped, and then murdered for his effort to redefine his biological gender, and since he was ousted by local authorities and press, his murder came to symbolize the difficulties facing those ostracized by mainstream society over gender identity issues. Brandon's former girlfriends in Nebraska found themselves stigmatized as lesbians, although they denied that their affairs with Brandon were lesbian in nature. They simply felt that they were innocent victims of sexual deception.

Brandon's mother, Joann Brandon, sued Sheriff Charles Laux in 1998 for not offering her daughter protective custody after Brandon reported the rape by Lotter and Nissen. The lower court ruled against Joann Brandon, saying that because Brandon dressed as a man, he was partly responsible for his own death. However, on April 20, 2001, the Nebraska Supreme Court overturned that ruling and said that Sheriff Laux was negligent for not providing protection to Brandon.

Aphrodite Jones authored All She Wanted, a sympathetic true-crime study of the rape and killing, and Jami Floyd, an ABC reporter, put together a television documentary for ABC 20/20 television. A full-length documentary movie, The Brandon Teena Story, the popular film Boys Don't Cry, together with numerous magazine articles and an Internet website all served as testimony to the compelling appeal of the tale in which this sensitive but troubled young person became a victim of prejudice and violent crime.

—i>Rodney Carlisle