Prosecutors in western New York on Wednesday provided disturbing new details about the killing of a 24-year-old transgender man, Sam Nordquist, who they said was sexually assaulted and tortured for several weeks earlier this year in a motel room in Canandaigua, N.Y.
In an 11-count indictment accusing seven people of first-degree murder and a battery of other new charges, prosecutors said two children had been forced to participate in acts of torture that led to Mr. Nordquist’s death. The same seven people had previously been charged with only second-degree murder.
The circumstances of the children’s involvement were not clear from court records, and the children were not identified except by their ages: 7 and 12.
“To have two children have to participate in the beating of another human being, it’s deeply disturbing,” Kelly Wolford, an assistant district attorney in Ontario County, southeast of Rochester, said at a news conference on Wednesday. “It has — I can speak for myself and everyone involved in this investigation — been one of the most troubling parts of this. It’s heartbreaking.”
The killing of Mr. Nordquist, who prosecutors have said traveled from his home in Minnesota to the Finger Lakes region of New York, where he was held captive and tortured, has prompted a national outcry over anti-transgender discrimination and violence. And some advocates for transgender people have demanded to know why the defendants in the case have not been charged with hate crimes.
The new charges announced on Wednesday added first-degree kidnapping, second-degree conspiracy and endangering the welfare of a child counts to each of seven defendants.
Acknowledging that many people would question why the seven defendants were not charged with a hate crime, Ms. Wolford argued the case was “bigger than a hate crime.”
“A hate crime would make this charge about Sam’s gender and about Sam’s race, and it’s so much bigger,” Ms. Wolford said. “To limit this to a hate crime would be an injustice to Sam.”
In New York State, a hate crime charge can supplement a charge of first-degree murder.
Ms. Wolford noted that a first-degree murder charge constituted a “rare circumstance” in New York State. Ms. Wolford said the possible penalties now included life in prison without parole.
“It specifically requires that we prove that all seven defendants tortured Sam Nordquist, and that they did so because they enjoyed it,” Ms. Wolford said, adding that the offenses would have been eligible for the death penalty before it was abolished in 2004.
The seven people charged are Precious Arzuaga, 38; Jennifer Quijano, 30; Kyle Sage, 33; Patrick Goodwin, 30; Emily Motyka, 19; Thomas G. Eaves, 21; and Kimberly Sochia, 29.
Ms. Arzuaga was charged with first-degree coercion for forcing the children to participate in the torture. Prosecutors declined to elaborate on the relationship between the defendants and the children.
Ms. Wolford added, “We’re here to seek justice for those two children as well.”
Mr. Nordquist was originally from the suburbs of St. Paul, Minn. Last September, prosecutors said, he traveled to New York to meet Ms. Arzuaga, who was living in Room 22 at a motel called Patty’s Lodge in Canandaigua, N.Y. The two had met online last year, according to investigators, and were in a romantic relationship.
According to the indictment, from roughly Jan. 1 to Feb. 2, Mr. Nordquist was kept in confinement, beaten, sexually assaulted and denied proper nutrition, among numerous other depraved acts. The torture, investigators said, eventually caused his death.
Ms. Wolford said that Mr. Nordquist’s body was then removed from the motel, wrapped in plastic bags and dumped on the side of the road in a field at a farm in nearby Yates County. Police discovered his body there on Feb. 12.
“In my 20-year law enforcement career, this is one of the most horrific crimes I have ever investigated,” Capt. Kelly Swift of the New York State Police said after the circumstances became public.
Four of the defendants were charged with first-degree aggravated sexual abuse. Six were charged with concealment of a human corpse.
The filing of the indictment in Ontario County Court caught attorneys for some of the defendants off guard. Two of them said they learned of the indictment from news outlets; several said they were reviewing the new charges and expected their clients to be arraigned next week.
But Neil Gunther, a lawyer for Ms. Quijano, said, “It is important to remember that an indictment is not a conviction. Ms. Quijano is presumed innocent, and it is important to let the legal process play out and to not rush to judgment.”
Mr. Nordquist was buried on Monday near his family’s home in the suburbs of St. Paul. Ms. Wolford said his mother and siblings welcomed the charges and the prospect of justice, but were exhausted by the emotional toll of the ordeal.
“They’ve been through a lot in these last few weeks,” Wolford said. “They’re glad that there is further progress, and they’re hoping this is the next stage of healing for them.”
David Andreatta contributed reporting.
