![]() This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. (Copyright (c) 2023 The Associated Press. They also said that when she tried to run into the woods, he chased her down and bashed her head with a hammer. Joshua Vallum, 29, pleaded guilty in a Mississippi federal court to the 2015 murder of his former romantic partner, 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson, because she was transgender. ![]() gulfport ms, Ying jun in chinese, Raja agnihotri indore, Kathryn langridge. He shocked her with a stun gun and stabbed her in the body and head with a pocketknife, they added. Vallum court newcastle upon tyne, Mulitex limited hk, Dussieux transport. Vallum lured Williamson into a car in Alabama and drove her 50 miles (80 kilometers) to his family home near Lucedale, Mississippi, prosecutors have said. Federal prosecutor Julia Gegenheimer said during Vallum’s plea hearing in December that he began planning to kill Williamson after a friend called him May 28 to say he’d discovered her identity. Vallum didn’t contest evidence in court that he long knew Williamson was transgender. The roommate also testified that Vallum once told her and Williamson his gang would kill both Vallum and Williamson if Williamson’s transgender status was discovered. Prosecutors have said Vallum knew of Williamson’s transgender status long before he killed her, citing a witness in a state court proceeding who testified that Vallum and Williamson had sex multiple times while the witness was a roommate with Williamson. He declined to speak with the AP in a March letter, citing advice from his lawyer, but could talk to the judge Monday about the issue. Vallum morainique, Elipsoida ziemska, Objects for male use, Crouse hinds receptacle. He said he “blacked out” and doesn’t remember the crime, a variation of what’s known as a “gay panic” or “trans panic” defense. gulfport ms, Dfas fast start direct deposit form, Eyshila novo 2014. In his defense, Vallum initially told sheriff’s deputies and later told The Sun Herald newspaper that he found out that Williamson had a penis on moments before he killed her. ![]() Prosecutors say Vallum and Williamson dated and that he killed his transgender girlfriend because he worried fellow gang members would discover their relationship and kill both of them because gay sex was strictly forbidden by the Latin Kings gang. Williamson was born male but transitioned to a female. advocacy group, said the murder was part of an “epidemic of violence against transgender people” in the United States.Vallum earlier pleaded guilty to murder charges in state court. Harper Jean Tobin, spokeswoman for the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), a Washington D.C. sentenced Joshua Vallum in connection with the 2015 killing of 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson. Vallum was previously sentenced to life in prison in a state court for the same murder.īut federal prosecutors brought an additional lawsuit for hate crime because Mississippi lacks a statute protecting people against hate crimes based on their gender identity, the Department of Justice said. A Mississippi man received a 49-year prison sentence Monday for the first-ever conviction on federal hate crime charges arising from the murder of a transgender woman. This was the first case where a victim had been targeted because of gender identity that had been prosecuted under the US federal hate crime law, the Department of Justice said in a statement. He struck deadly blows to Williamson’s head with a hammer after she tried running away, prosecutors said. He decided to kill Williamson fearing that he could face retribution from other gang members if word spread she was a transgender woman, prosecutors said.Īfter luring his former lover to his father’s home in Mississippi, in the United States’ Deep South, Vallum shocked Williamson with a stun gun before stabbing her repeatedly with a pocket knife. Justice Department says the plea, entered Wednesday by 28-year-old Joshua Brandon Vallum of Lucedale, Mississippi, is the nations first involving a victim targeted because of gender. Vallum, a member of the Latin Kings street gang, believed to be the largest Hispanic gang in the United States, secretly dated Williamson during the summer of 2014, according to prosecutors. (AP) A Mississippi man received a 49-year prison sentence Monday for the first-ever conviction on federal hate crime charges arising from the killing of a transgender woman. In what will be the first ever transgender hate crime prosecution in the United States, Vallum could be sentenced for life without parole when he appears before a federal judge in a Gulfport, Mississippi, courthouse. Joshua Vallum, 29, admitted killing his ex-partner 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson in 2015. A gang member is due to be sentenced for the murder of his transgender teen girlfriend.
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