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LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) -- About 600 people gathered Sunday night for a candelight vigil honoring Matthew Shepard, the gay college student who was fatally beaten and tied to a post a year ago. ``We on this campus, in Laramie and in Wyoming, are people of peace, of inclusiveness,'' the Rev. Roger Schmit, of St. Paul's Newman Center, told people on the University of Wyoming campus. One of two men accused in the slaying, Aaron McKinney, 22, goes on trial Monday on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery. The other suspect, Russell Henderson, 22, pleaded guilty in April to felony murder and kidnapping and received two life sentences. Shepard, 21, was lured from a bar Oct. 7, 1998, driven to a remote prairie, tied to a fence, pistol-whipped into unconsciousness and left to die on the freezing plains. He died on Oct. 12, 1998, and McKinney's trial begins amid several memorials commemorating the one-year anniversary of his death.
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