Seven people pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a long list of charges in the killing of Sam Nordquist, a Black transgender man who was allegedly held captive and tortured in an upstate New York hotel room for more than a month before succumbing to his torment.
Nordquist’s former partner, Precious Arzuaga, and six others pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, second-degree murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, endangering the welfare of a child and concealment of a human corpse. If convicted of first-degree murder, New York state’s heaviest penalty, the defendants could spend the rest of their lives in prison without parole.
Four of them, including Arzuaga, also pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual abuse charges, and Arzuaga pleaded not guilty to coercion.
The 11-count indictment issued last week outlined Nordquist’s gruesome torment, which included beatings, hitting, kicking, punching, inserting an object into his anus, starvation, forced consumption of feces, urine and tobacco juice. Two young children were also coerced to partake in his torture, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors said last week that Nordquist, 24, was tortured from Jan. 1 to Feb. 2. Authorities found Nordquist’s body in a farmer’s field in Yates County, New York, on Feb. 13.
The brutality and astonishing nature of the killing has garnered national attention and fueled outrage among LGBTQ advocates in recent weeks.
“We’ll never know the answer why, because what human being could do what happened to Sam?” Ontario County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Wolford said at a press conference last week. “We’ll never make sense of this case.”
Attorneys for six of the defendants — Arzuaga, 38; her son, Thomas Eaves, 21; Quijano, 30; Sage, 33; Goodwin, 30; and Kimberly Sochia, 29 — did not immediately return NBC News requests for comment.
“The way that everyone’s perceiving her is unfair given what I think her minimal involvement is,” Lindsey Pieper, an an attorney for the seventh and youngest defendant, Emily Motyka, 19, said in a phone call.
Nordquist’s family could not immediately be reached for comment.
Nordquist and Arzuaga met online and began dating in August, according to interviews with Nordquist’s family. In September, Nordquist left his home in Oakdale, Minnesota, and traveled to Canandaigua, New York, to pursue the romantic relationship, his family said. The pair were staying at a motel in the Finger Lakes city, Patty’s Lodge, for the entirety of Nordquist’s time in New York.
In the months leading up to his death, Nordquist’s family told NBC News that his calls and texts became uncharacteristically infrequent. The family said they feared that Arzuaga was controlling his cellphone use and movements.
The family also accused local police of botching wellness checks they had requested while Nordquist was alive. Authorities have denied any wrongdoing.
Wolford said last week that the seven defendants knew one another from the area and that some were romantically involved. Records show that Goodwin, who is a registered sex offender, was also staying in a nearby room at Patty’s Lodge at the time. Pieper said she did not know how Motyka met the other defendants, but that her client was living at Patty’s Lodge for two weeks, starting on Jan. 18.
When asked if the two children coerced to partake in Nordquist’s torture belonged to Arzuaga — who has young children — Wolford declined to comment.
Since his body was found, LGBTQ advocates urged prosecutors to pursue hate crime charges. Wolford pushed back on those requests last week, saying that to “limit us to a hate crime would be an injustice to Sam.”
Nordquist’s family laid him to rest last week in Minnesota. The seven defendants will next appear in court on May 2.
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