PHOTO. Here is a picture of Justin Zapata, transgender Angela or Angie Zapata. Mocospace’s Allen Ray Andrade trial for murder begins today charged with the killing of Zapata.

Zapata, 18, was beaten with a fire extinguisher in 2008.

Here is the background.

Allen Ray Andrade met Angela Zapata on a social networking site called MocoSpace. Investigators says shortly after hanging out, Zapata performed orally on Allen Ray but didn’t let him touch her. Police then say Allen Ray found a photograph that prompted him to ask Angela Zapata if he was a man or a woman.

Zapata said woman. Allen Ray then grabbed Zapata and felt what he suspected - that Angela was really a man.

The case has become significant for legal reasons, because it will reportedly:

“… be the first time an anti-transgender murder will be prosecuted as a hate crime under state law, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. A coalition of anti-violence groups have put out an ad using the case to lobby for national hate crimes legislation.”

The case is in Greeley, Colorado.

After Allen Ray made the revelation, investigators said he beat Zapata, who he describes as “it”, with the fire extinguisher.

Police say Allen Ray Andrade, 32, snapped when he learned that 18-year-old Angie Zapata, who was born Justin Zapata but lived as a young woman, was biologically a man.