I don't know how I would react if I found out a woman I had sex with was really a man. In the UK it is a prisonable offence to pretend to be a different gender to get sex.
I think the three minutes is significant. It wasn't a sustained attack, it was proven to be one punch and one stamp and it was also proved that the man was still alive when the attacker left.
The whole thing is rather grubby and unpleasant. I can see how the jury would have sympathy for the defendant especially if the majority were men.
Would it affect our thoughts if we could see the defendant and pictures of the dead man?