Trent Labette was a church assistant who murdered a gay man named Richard Antrim.
History[]
Trent caught Reverend Jeb Curtis's son Paul kissing another man Richard. Fearing this would shame the church, he went to the Reverend and insisted that he intervened before a scandal is launched. Curtis did intervene by enrolling his son into an conversion camp and paid off Richard to stay away from his son, though neither tactic worked. Curtis soon lost his eldest child and began to accept his son, out of fear for losing him too.
Eventually, Trent felt the Reverend's fate was weak and believing he would be carrying on God's will, he took matters into his own hands. Trent subsequently murdered Richard by shoving meth down his throat. Trent then sodomized his corpse, before he inscribed ritual marks on it and dumped Richard in a church cemetery. He then broke into Richard's apartment where he stole items from his apartment and sanitized it, so that no one would be able to identify his presence. Trent also made plans to frame Curtis for not properly taking action.
Sin[]
When SVU detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson meet Trent, they announce they came to see Reverend Curtis, but he tells them that he was holding a ceremony for his late son who had died in the army. After the detectives start looking at Curtis as a suspect in the murder of Richard, Trent deflects any suspicion from him by tipping off the media and make it appear that Curtis was having an affair with Richard and paying him off to cover it up. This ultimately caused Curtis' wife Hannah to fly into a rage and shoot him for his supposed lies, but he survived.
The detectives soon suspected Paul because he was really involved with Richard. Ultimately, they discovered both Curtis and his son were innocent, with the culprit having to be another person who knew about the relationship between Richard and Paul. A horrified Curtis realizes it was Trent because he came to him about the relationship, demanding he put an end to such afront. SVU also noted he was the only person who knew they would visit the Curtis residence, realizing he called the media because he was trying to set the Curtis family up.
The detectives proceeded to arrest Trent who initially tries to deny the accusations, but he is shocked to learn Curtis survived the shooting and has accepted Paul. This caused a disgusted Trent to confess and reveal his views of homosexuality, deeming it a sinful punishment worthy of death. When it is brought up that Richard had done nothing to him, Trent is unrepentant and reveals that he killed Richard for nearly ruining the reputation of the church. He also revealed he framed Curtis because he felt that the latter was not living up to leading the church while he was carrying out divine justice.
Trent was imprisoned for hate crimes and murder after the detectives found evidence of Richard's belongings at his home, while the Curtis family were exonerated.(SVU: "Sin")