ColoradoIndependent.com – By Ernest Luning
Surrounded by family and fighting back tears, Gonzalo Zapata expressed grief over the loss of his sister and anger at the man convicted earlier Wednesday afternoon in the death of Angie Zapata, an 18-year-old transgender woman who was bludgeoned to death by Allen Andrade last summer in her Greeley apartment.
In a statement read to the media, Zapata praised Weld County prosecutors for securing first-degree murder and hate-crime convictions against Andrade, 32, who was sentenced Wednesday to life imprisonment without possibility of parole for the murder. He also called on Congress to pass federal hate-crime legislation that would extend protection to gay and transexual victims.