An inmate incarcerated in Missouri for the brutal rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend appears to have transitioned while on death row for the horrific crime.
Scott McLaughlin, 49, was found guilty in the murder of Beverly Guenther in 2003. The victim was McLaughlin’s ex-girlfriend, a woman he had been on-again-off-again dating for approximately one year. According to court records, Guenther and McLaughlin met in 2002, and began living with each other shortly into the relationship.
But the cohabitation was marred by break-ups that were often so serious that Geunther sometimes had to obtain restraining orders to keep McLaughlin away from her.
In spring of 2003, Geunther and McLaughlin formally ended their relationship, but McLaughlin would continue to pursue the woman — frequently visiting her place of work and calling her.
On October 27, 2003, Guenther would be arrested after burglarizing McLaughlin’s home. He told arresting officers he was trying to reclaim possessions from when he lived with her, and was arraigned in November. Guenther sought a protective order at this time, but just two days later McLaughlin would murder her.
On the night of November 20, while the protective order was in effect, McLaughlin drove to Geunther’s workplace and waited for her in the parking lot of the office building. He ambushed her as she walked towards her truck, pulled her to the ground, and sexually assaulted her.
After violating the woman, McLaughlin stabbed her to death before shoving her corpse in his hatchback. He drove Guenther’s body to a nearby river, and disposed of it in the underbrush. McLaughlin was arrested the next day at the hospital while attempting to get some medication for his mental illness.
McLaughlin was ultimately found guilty of first-degree murder and forcible rape. A trial jury was unable to decide whether to impose a sentence of death or life in prison without the possibility of parole, and a judge made the final decision to issue the death penalty.
McLaughlin unsuccessfully appealed his sentence multiple times over the years. In 2008, he brought it before the Supreme Court of Missouri, arguing a technical error in the rape conviction. The Court denied his appeal, and further rejected any re-hearings.
McLaughlin then took his case to a Circuit Court seeking post-conviction relief, which he was also denied. Finally, McLaughlin filed a federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus, believing his incarceration was unconstitutional.
In 2016, McLaughlin was granted a stay of execution, but it was re-instated by a Federal Appeals Court in 2021.
On September 29, after years of delays, the state of Missouri announced a date of January 3, 2023, had been set for McLaughlin’s execution.
McLaughlin is currently incarcerated in the Potosi Correctional Center, a male prison in Mineral Point, Missouri for maximum-security and high-risk inmates. Records from the Missouri Department of Corrections show McLaughlin has apparently begun identifying as a “woman,” with his most recent mugshot capturing him donning long hair, makeup, and nail polish.
The photo, updated in December of 2021, is strikingly different from a previous record from just a few years prior when McLaughlin was seen with a decidedly more “masculine” appearance.
Despite the dramatic change, McLaughlin is still recorded in the Missouri Department of Corrections system as a “male” and under his birth name. The state does not have an explicit gender self-identification policy.
McLaughlin is one of two known trans-identified male inmates incarcerated for extremely violent crimes in the state of Missouri. Just two hours away in Charleston, Patricia Elaine Trimble is housed at the Southeast Correctional Center.
Born Patrick, Trimble was convicted in 1978 of the brutal rape of two 9-year-old girls in the city of St. Charles, Missouri. While in prison awaiting the final verdict on his case, Trimble would commit another heinous crime, making what the court would describe as a “slave” out of his developmentally disabled cellmate before murdering him.
According to a court document, Trimble “… forced the victim to have both oral and anal intercourse with him, compelled him to wear a ‘bra’ around the jail for the entertainment of the other inmates, and forced him at one point to display to the other inmates a rag that had been stuffed into his anus.” Trimble prostituted Everett to other inmates, and even offered to sell him to a member of the prison staff for a carton of cigarettes. Trimble also tortured Everett, making deep gashes in his flesh using burnt shampoo bottles.
Trimble was initially sentenced to death for his crimes, but the decision would later be commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 50 years.
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