Tag: murder

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Phillipines: U.S. Marine Found Guilty In Strangling Death Of Transgender Woman

A U.S. Marine has been found guilty of murder and sentenced to prison for up to 12 years for the strangling death of a transgender woman in the Phillipines last year.

From CNN:

The court in Olongapo, a city 77 miles (124 km) northwest of Manila, sentenced Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton to up to 12 years in prison, according to CNN Philippines’ Ina Andolong, who was at the hearing Tuesday.

The naked body of Jeffrey Laude, also known as Jennifer, was found with her head in a toilet in an Olongapo hotel room shortly after midnight on October 12, 2014, police said.

Witnesses told police that Pemberton was with Laude at a local disco before the two checked into a hotel on the night of October 11, according to documents seen by CNN.

Pemberton told police in October that he’d choked Laude, but then tried to revive her. He said he had become angry with Laude upon discovering she had male genitalia, according to police.

Lance Corporal Pemberton is nineteen years old.

(h/t JMG)

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Transgender Woman Beaten And Murdered In Philadelphia

 Twenty-two year old transgender woman Kiesha Jenkins was shot twice in the back early this morning in North Philadelphia.

Via Huffington Post:

“She was known to the LGBTQ community as a transgender individual,” the spokeswoman said.

Police are treating the case as a homicide — not a hate crime — though that could change as the investigation continues, she added.

Jenkins was jumped by five to six men, physically assaulted, then shot in the back, police said.

A $20,000 reward is being offered to anyone with information leading to an arrest and conviction of the men.

Keisha Jenkins is one of at least 16 transgender women of color reportedly killed in the U.S. this year.

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Department Of Justice Officially Announces No Charges Against George Zimmerman

The Department of Justice has officially announced there will be no charges filed against George Zimmerman for the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

From ABC News:

ABC News has learned Martin’s family will soon be notified that the Justice Department will not be filing charges against George Zimmerman, who shot the 17-year-old after a confrontation in 2012. Thursday marks three years to the day since Martin was killed.

Federal prosecutors concluded there is not sufficient evidence to prove Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman in Sanford, Fla., intentionally violated Martin’s civil rights, sources told ABC News.

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California Assembly passes ban on so-called “gay panic” defense

According to the Fresno Bee, California may soon become the first state in the country to ban the use of “gay panic” defense in murder cases.

The California Assembly approved AB2501 by a vote of 50-10 this past Wednesday. The legislation would bar defendants from using a victims’ sexual orientation or gender as a basis for a so-called “panic defense.”

Currently, California allows for murder charges to be reduced to lesser crimes like manslaughter if the killer claims they “panicked” upon discovering someone was gay or transgender.

The American Bar Association has previously announced it’s support for reducing the use of panic defenses.

The bill is now on it’s way to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature.

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San Francisco: “Person of Interest” sought in connection to Feather Lynn murder

The San Francisco Police Department has released video footage of a “person of interest” sought in connection to the homicide of “Feather Lynn”/Bryan Higgins.

Apparently there had been inconsistencies about the color of hoodie worn by a possible assailant, but in this video the man who is pursuing Feather Lynn (who is blacked out in the video) is shown wearing a dark hoodie over a red hoodie which could explain somethings.

Video was taken the same day as the attack on Feather. If you have any information about this man please contact the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text TIP411 with “SFPD” at the start of the message.

(h/t JMG)

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Charles Manson to wed 25 year old follower

Afton Burton, 25 years old, is currently in the filing stages of paperwork in the hopes that she will become the next Mrs. Charles Manson.

Via Fox Carolina:

“He filed for the first round of paperwork,” says Star, who says she’s in love with the 79-year-old convicted murderer. “I’m completely with him, and he’s completely with me. It’s what I was born for, you know. I don’t know what else to say.”

After a few years of sending letters and talking to Manson on the phone, Star, at age 19, moved to Corcoran, a small central California city that’s home to Corcoran State Prison, where Charles Manson has lived for the past 25 years.

She talks to Manson almost every day by phone and visits him on most weekends.

The prison limits physical contact. During visits, Star and Manson can only hug each other at the beginning and end. Because Manson is serving a life sentence, they won’t be allowed conjugal visits, even if they’re officially married.

It is worth noting that convicted murderer Charles Manson might marry soon, but in 31 states of the US gay and lesbian couples cannot do the same.

(h/t JMG)

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Twenty-five year old mother sentenced to life in prison for murder of her 4 year old son

A 25-year old mother convicted earlier this month of murdering her four-year old son because she thought he was gay was sentenced to life in prison today.

Dutro will be eligible for parole in 25 years. Dutro’s boyfriend Brian Canady pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to twelve and a half years in prison.

Zachary Dutro-Boggess, four years old in 2012, was repeatedly kicked in the stomach by Canady and left for two days without medical attention. When finally brought to the hospital, it was too late. He died two days later. Doctors testified that he would have lived had he been given medical attention sooner.

In a Facebook message read in court during the trial, Dutro had written to her boyfriend Brian that her son, Zachary, at the time was “facing the wall” because he had made her mad.

Her son was going to be gay, she wrote, using a slur. “He walks and talks like it. Ugh.”

Canady would have to “work on” Zachary, she wrote.

The cause of death was blunt force trauma “to his abdomen that caused tears in his bowel,” OregonLive had reported.

Zachary “was covered in bumps and bruises,” OregonLove noted in a separate report, “but he died from two holes in his intestines caused by blunt-force trauma. Urine and feces seeped from the holes and harmed his vital organs.”

(from The New Civil Rights Movement)

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Alabama: Mother fatally shoots son’s boyfriend at truck stop

Rawstory reports on an Alabama woman who has been charged with the murder of her gay son’s boyfriend.

Tuscaloosa County Deputies said that 51-year-old Anita T. Hill’s son was “involved in a long-term relationship” with 36-year-old Jamie R. Johnson. According to deputies, the three agreed to meet at Love’s Truck Stop in McCalla on Monday to talk.

Investigators determined that the group talked for a while and then Hill’s son returned to his vehicle. Hill and Johnson continued speaking for a few more minutes. When Johnson turned to walk away, Hill shot him in the back, WBRC reported.

Watch the report below:

ABC 33/40 – Birmingham News, Weather, Sports