interview
Duncan Sheik
page 29
Anything But Straight
Besen speaks out on Christmas
page 14
Noted . Notable . Noteworthy . LGBT News & Views
Durham gay man
arrested and charged
with murder
Partner insists he’s innocent
by Donald Miller
DURHAM, N.C. — According to
Tyrone Lacour’s partner of three-
and -a-half years, there’s no way he
could be guilty of murder.
“In the entire time we’ve been
together, he’s never lifted not one
finger against me,” Richard
Crowther told Q-Notes.“\ know this
man. He’s not capable of such vio
lence.”
Police in Durham and Person
County claim to know a much dif
ferent Lacour, however.
This report was issued by
Durham police two years ago, list-
ing Lacour as their number one
most wanted fugitive: Tyrone
# I Mr. Tyrone Joseph Lacour
Case Number 04-31829
At 1:50p.m. on November 23,2004,
Durham Police Department discovered the
body of Mr. Dennis Wayne Rowe at his resi
dence in the 400 block of west Maynard
Avenue. Mr. Rowe was brutally murdered by his
attacker(s). Detective VP. Bynum, the lead
investigator, with the Durham Police
Department has obtained a warrant for First
Degree Murder for Mr. Tyrone Joseph Lacour.
He also has outstanding warrants on file with
the Person County Sheriffs Office for Obtaining
Property by False Pretenses and Forgery and
Uttering. Mr. Lacour has not been arrested as of
yet. He is a forty-one year old white male about
five feet nine inches in height and one hundred
and eighty-five pounds.
Despite the fact that police were actively
pursuing Lacour for two years, Crowther says
that neither he nor his partner had any idea
police were searching for him when they
showed up to with an arrest warrant on
Friday, Oct. 13 in Kilmarnock, Va..
“None at all, says Crowther. “We knew
nothing about it.”
Reports about Lacour’s relationship with
Rowe are conflicting. According to a story car
ried by a Durham newspaper, Lacour lived with
Rowe in Durham at the time of his murder.
Joseph Lacour at the
time of his arrest
Crowther says that’s not so.
“He didn’t live with him. He had gone
home to visit family and the two of them met
through mutual
friends. They were
casual acquain
tances.” Despite
that assertion,
Crowther can’t
explain why police
say that Lacour
was at Rowe’s
home.
“”I don’t know
the answer to that.
1 wish I did. It
would probably
help [Tyrone].”
Crowther is
insistent that his
partner is being
railroaded by a
failed justice system that is seeking to punish
him for not just one murder he doesn’t
believe Lacour committed, but two.
According to the police department of
Person County, Lacour was wanted in connec
tion with the death of another gay man, Eric
Pennebaker, 33, but charges were later dropped
due to lack of evidence and a confession by the
victim just before he died. Pennebaker died of
burns after being set on fire with gasoline in
August 2001. According to media reports.
Lacour and Pennebaker also lived together in
Person County, N.C.
Lacour admitted to fighting with
Pennebaker the night of his death, but says he
did not set him on fire. According to Cpl.
David Addison, coordinator for Durham
Crime Stoppers, Lacour allegedly forged a
check he had stolen from Pennebaker and
cashed it the day after Pennebaker’s death.
Even after the murder charges were dropped
against Lacour, he was still wanted for “obtain
ing property by false pretenses, forgery and
uttering,” Addison said.
In April 2002, Lacour was indicted for
murder in Pennebaker’s case, but the charges
were later dropped because of statements that
see man on 6
Perspective
Views on the Republican Party
page 19
Vol. 21 . Number
Annual Gift Guide
page 29
www.q-notes.com December 2.2006
N.C. Baptists say no way to
affirming gays
by Mark Smith
GREENSBORO — The North Carolina
Baptist State Convention voted Nov. 14 to
expel any church that voices support for gays
and lesbians. This action increased the already
restrictive prohibitions of the national
Baptists Convention oh sexual orientation and
seeks overt exclusion.
In previous Baptist doctrine, the local
church has been autonomous — free to make
its own decisions as to how, to whom and with
whom the church ministers.
In a press release from the N.C. Baptist
State Convention, Norman Jameson, executive
leader for public relations and resource devel
opment, said the following;
“In regards to the recent annual session,
messengers decided that churches which pro
mote, affirm, bless, support... homosexual
behavior — though free to make those deci
sions — will not be viewed to be in ‘friendly
cooperation’ with the churches that comprise
the Baptist State Convention.
“Individuals who choose to remain in
homosexuality or any other sinful lifestyle,
according to Baptist doctrine, are not candi
dates for baptism, and as a result not candidates
for church membership. When autonomous
Baptist churches baptize and accept into their
memberships unrepentant homosexuals, those
churches have left Baptist doctrine.”
The nationwide Southern Baptist
Convention had already barred gays and les
bians from becoming members or entering
the clergy but North Carolina Baptists had no
such policy in place until now.
By barring churches that support gays
from membership. North Carolina has the
dubious distinction of having the most
restrictive of any Baptist state organization in
the country. The measure passed on a voice
vote with more than the two-thirds majority.
With more than 4,000 churches and 1.2
million members, the N.C. Baptist Convention
is the second-largest association of Baptist
churches in the nation.
Seventeen of those churches in the state
already have a welcoming policy, according to
a story that appeared in The Associated Press.
Those congregations will be placed under
review.
Despite the ruling, it appears some
Baptists in North Carolina are not jumping on
the get-rid-of-gays bandwagon.
According to a
story that
appeared in the
Stanley County
News and Press,
Rev. Roger
Thomas of First
Baptist Church in
Albemarle thinks
the convention is
overstepping its
boundaries.
“Historically,
Baptists have
believed in auton
omy of the local
church,” Thomas
told the News and
Press. “Certainly
the issue is
addressed in
scripture, [but]
how it is dealt with was determined by each
church.”
“This deviates from that long history^’ he
see baptists on 6
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