Prosecutors have said Vallum knew of Williamson’s transgender status long before he killed her. 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. Joshua Vallum, from George County, Missouri, maintains he killed 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson because he discovered she was a man while their pair were getting intimate. WASHINGTON Joshua Brandon Vallum, 29, of Lucedale, Mississippi, was sentenced today in the Southern District of Mississippi to 49 years in prison for assaulting and murdering Mercedes Williamson because she was a transgender woman, announced Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler of the Justice. 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 May 30, 2015, moments before he killed her. Joshua Brandon Vallum, Defendant herein, and Ellen Alfred, attorney for Defendant, have been notified and understand and agree to the items contained herein, as well as in the Plea Supplement, and that: Count of Conviction. Prosecutors say Vallum and Williamson dated and that Vallum killed Williamson because he worried fellow gang members would discover their relationship and kill both of them because gay sex was strictly forbidden by the gang. Williamson was born male but transitioned to female. The two were in a romantic relationship, but Vallum, a member of the Latin Kings gang, kept. Hate Crime Historic Sentencing for Gang Member Who Killed Transgender Woman EMO Investigators at the Mississippi property of Joshua Vallum's father in 2015.
The case had been closely watched by LGBT groups nationwide, who cite studies showing transgender people are particularly likely to be victims of violent crimes.Ī 2009 federal hate crimes law included protections for gay and transgender people, but of the 47 people prosecuted during the period reviewed by The Associated Press, none were for offenses against transgender people. A gang member was sentenced to 49 years in prison on Monday for the murder of a transgender teen, in the first ever transgender hate crime prosecution under a 2009 federal law. Joshua Vallum, 29, killed 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson in May 2015 because she was transgender.
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