PHOENIX (AP) – A Phoenix man who is HIV-positive will spend four years in prison for having unprotected sex with a 15-year-old boy.

Thomas Herbert also faces up to 200 years in prison on a child pornography charge and 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. He’s set for trial in that case in June.

Herbert, 30, and his roommate, 38-year-old Robert Price, were indicted in July 2004 on 22 abuse counts. Price had full-blown AIDS.

Both men reached plea agreements in April, pleading guilty to two counts of sexual conduct with a minor and one count of child abuse.

Price was sent to prison after being sentenced to nearly four years in prison in October. Weeks later, he was found hanged to death in his prison cell in Florence.

Prison officials say it appears the death was a suicide, but Herbert told a judge he was murdered.

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) – A resort that catered exclusively to gay and lesbian customers has closed after a year of operating in northwest Tucson.

Operators of the Coyote Moon Health Resort and Spa, which shut its doors last week, said the venture’s startup costs proved too costly.

The focus of the resort was to offer members of the gay and lesbian community a place to renew their body, mind and spirit. The 30-acre resort is housed in the former La Tierra Linda Guest Ranch Resort, a dude ranch where Hollywood elite vacationed in the 1930s.

Coyote Moon had played host to more than 400 guests from around the world.

General manager Keith Bradkowski said operators thought the resort would succeed given the number of gay and lesbian travelers who frequent spas and resorts.

HAYWARD, Calif. (AP) – One of four men charged in the beating and strangulation of transgender teenager Gwen Araujo pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter. Juries had deadlocked in two previous murder trials.

Under the plea agreement, Jason Cazares, 25, will spend no more than six years in prison, according to prosecutors. His sentencing is Jan. 27.

Araujo, 17, was beaten, tied up and strangled on Oct. 4, 2002, after men she had had sexual encounters with learned she was biologically male, according to authorities.

Cazares claimed he was outside the house when his friends killed Araujo and only helped bury the body in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

A jury convicted Michael Magidson and Jose Merel, both 25, in September of second-degree murder but deadlocked 9-3 on the same charge for Cazares, prompting the judge to declare a second mistrial in his case.

The fourth man charged in the case, Jaron Nabors, 22, was allowed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for his testimony against the others.

Cazares’ lawyer Tony Serra previously said his client would not plead guilty to any charge more serious than being an accessory after the fact. But after two mistrials, a possible conviction in the next trial was too much of a risk, he said.

“It probably would have gone the same way, but the risk is inordinate,” Serra said.

Araujo was born a boy named Edward but grew up to believe her true identity was female. The defendants, who knew her as Lida, met Araujo in the summer of 2002.

The men discovered Araujo’s gender during the deadly confrontation at Merel’s house in the San Francisco suburb of Newark.

Magidson and Merel are expected to be sentenced in January to 15-years-to-life in prison. Nabors was expected to be sentenced to 11 years.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The foundation that owns the AIDS Memorial Quilt has agreed to return a portion of it to the project’s creator in San Francisco.

The NAMES Project Foundation in Atlanta will return 280 of the quilt’s some 40,000 hand-sewn panels to Cleve Jones, the gay-rights activist who founded the project in 1987 in San Francisco, said his attorney, Angela Alioto.

Under terms of the settlement, Jones will create a nonprofit organization – San Francisco Friends of the AIDS Memorial Quilt – to care for and display the quilt.

Jones will also be given exclusive authority to fill two new positions on the NAMES board of directors, Alioto said.

The settlement ends two years of legal wrangling over ownership of the 52-mile-long tribute, which features hand-sewn panels commemorating individuals who died of AIDS.

Jones, who is infected with the HIV virus, sued the foundation in January 2004 after claiming he was wrongly fired from his position as a spokesperson for complaining that the quilt was not being displayed prominently.

Earlier this year, a judge dismissed the wrongful firing and breach of contract portions of Jones’ suit.

Further settlement talks collapsed when the foundation refused Jones’ request to bring the very first panel of the quilt to the city, which he made in honor of his partner, Alioto said. That first panel will now be returned to San Francisco.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – A former New Mexico man has entered a plea to second-degree murder in the beating death of another man.

Joseph Michael Lawrence, 23, entered an Alford plea in Black Hawk County District Court. The plea does not mean he admitted guilt, but indicated he believed that he could be convicted if the matter were taken to trial.

Lawrence had been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jason Edwin Gage, 29.

Authorities said Lawrence admitted beating and stabbing Gage with a piece of glass at Gage’s Waterloo apartment on March 12. They say Lawrence later told his girlfriend that he assaulted Gage after Gage, who was openly gay, made sexual advances.

Gage’s body was found two days later.

Lawrence was sentenced to 50 years in prison. He must serve 35 years before being eligible for parole. He waived his rights to appeal and must pay a $150,000 civil penalty to the Gage’s estate.

Lawrence did not comment at the plea hearing.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – The widow of Army Sgt. Dominic Sacco, killed last month in Iraq, says she’s grateful that people stood up to anti-gay pastor Fred Phelps’ protest outside her husband’s funeral service.

About 25 Phelps followers protested during the Dec. 2 service, but some 500 veterans and other supporters lined both sides of the street outside the funeral home to show their disgust for Phelps and his group.

“The support alone on the day of my husband’s funeral was enough for me,” said the widow, Brandy Sacco. “I was extremely impressed. All I could do was cry. What do you say?”

She had endorsed the idea of a counter protest when Phelps vowed that backers of his Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka would picket the funeral. Phelps and his followers have protested more than 60 funerals of soldiers across the country, claiming their deaths are part of God’s wrath against the United States.

DETROIT (AP) – The conservative American Family Association said it will consider reinstating a boycott against Ford Motor Co. because the automaker plans to continue running advertisements in gay publications.

Ford had said it planned to stop advertising its Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands in gay publications to reduce its marketing costs. But after gay rights groups complained and held meetings with the automaker, Ford reversed course and said it would continue to advertise all of its eight brands in gay publications.

“We had an agreement with Ford, worked out in good faith. Unfortunately, some Ford Motor Co. officials made the decision to violate the good faith agreement,” AFA Chair Don Wildmon said in a news release. “We are now considering our response to the violation and expect to reach a decision very soon.”

AFA, a Tupelo, Miss., based group, originally called for a boycott against Ford last spring but suspended the boycott for six months at the request of a group of Ford dealers.

“All we wanted was for Ford to refrain from choosing sides in the cultural war, and supporting groups which promote same-sex marriage is not remaining neutral,” Wildmon said.

Ford spokesperson Kathleen Vokes said the company had no comment.

Ford said it wasn’t ordering its luxury brands to resume their ads but plans to advertise all of its brands in gay publications.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) – A University of North Dakota faculty panel is recommending that choir director Anthony Reeves be fired but that he be on paid administrative leave for another semester.

The recommendation, made by the five-member group, now goes to UND President Charles Kupchella.

The panel was unanimous in recommending that Reeves be dismissed “with cause” at the end of the spring semester, which gets underway Jan. 9.

Reeves collapsed during the panel’s deliberations and did not attend the hearing on the advice of his doctor, attorney Henry Howe said. Reeves was to undergo tests at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for stress-related seizures, Howe said.

“I really think it’s sad for the students, Dr. Reeves and the university, and I think it’s sad that there weren’t some efforts taken before the hearing to resolve the problems,” Howe said.

Reeves, who was placed on administrative leave in August, had appealed the recommendation to fire him. The hearing on his appeal began Nov. 7, and the panel heard more than 70 hours of testimony.

Reeves argued that he was being fired because he is gay. The faculty panel rejected that, saying it found evidence of inappropriate conduct as a professor.

Marshall said the state Board of Higher Education should examine the appeal hearing process to see if it could be more efficient. He figured UND spent more money on conducting Reeves’ grievance hearing than the more than $22,000 it would take to pay the professor next semester.