The Rainbow Connection Network

Ryan Keith Skipper, (April 28, 1981 - March 14, 2007) was a 25-year old gay man from Florida who was murdered on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 in what authorities called a hate crime. Two men have been arrested in connection with the crime.

Ryan Skipper was born Tuesday, April 28, 1981, in Winter Haven to Patricia Mulder and James Skipper, the second of two sons. He attended First Missionary Baptist Church of Auburndale as a child, then Grace Lutheran Church and School in Winter Haven, where he served as an altar boy.

Skipper kept his sexual orientation a secret, though in his final year at Winter Haven High School he came out to a select few friends. At school he was assaulted and often taunted with anti-gay slurs. According to friend Stephanie Strickland, "In high school, people would call him a girlie man, gay boy," push him in the halls and throw rocks at his car.

After high school, Skipper moved out of his parents' home. He was arrested twice on charges of possession of marijuana, once in 1999 and again in 2001. At the time of his murder, he was working, living with roommates, and attending Traviss Career Center, a vocational school where he was studying computers.

At 9 pm on March 14, after finishing work in Winter Haven, Skipper met friend Karl von Hahmann for dinner. They left the restaurant at 10:30 pm. Skipper returned home where Von Hahmann spoke to him on the telephone at 11:10 pm, after which roommate Kelly Evans saw him go into his bedroom .

Some time around midnight, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, Skipper met Bearden. Bearden is a convicted car thief who also pleaded no contest to a battery charge in 2004. Sometime afterwards, Skipper, Brown and Bearden drove away in Skipper's car; 15 minutes later Brown and Bearden returned alone.

It is not fully known how Skipper met Bearden and Brown, but Skipper's roommate Joyce Fraley claims to have seen Brown at their house on several occasions. Strickland also says that Brown knew a previous tenant of Skipper's home, and lived two blocks away. Allegedly, Brown had visited the home a few times just weeks before he and Bearden murdered Skipper.

Skipper was beaten, stabbed 20 times and his throat slit. His body was dumped by the side of a road in Wahneta, a small town outside Winter Haven. His car was abandoned at Lake Pansy, and the fingerprints of both accused were found inside.
 

On February 28, 2009, after nearly two days of deliberation, jurors found Joseph Bearden guilty of second-degree murder in Ryan Skipper's death. Prosecutors had charged him with first-degree murder and sought the death penalty. Bearden was also found guilty on four other counts: theft of a motor vehicle, accessory after the fact, tampering with evidence, and dealing in stolen property. Bearden was sentenced to life behind bars for the second-degree murder charge, as well as two five-year and two fifteen-year sentences for the other charges, to run concurrently with the life sentence.

Bearden’s co-defendant, William Brown Jr., will be tried separately later in 2009.

(Wikipedia entry used by permission)

The Rainbow Connection Network is honored to have received the endorsement of the family and friends of Ryan Skipper. Plans are currently underway to ship copies of the book "Am I Blue" to Ryan's middle and high schools as well as schools in the surrounding area. The books will contain a faceplate commemorating Ryan and his unwitting sacrifice.