LaTeisha Green
Green was shot as she sat in a car with her brother and a friend outside a house on Seymour Street in Syracuse.
The victim's mother, Roxanne Green, spoke briefly in court saying that she hoped DeLee would understand the depth of the family's loss, Syracuse Post Standard reports.
“He took a very precious life,” Green said, adding she hoped DeLee would see the victim's face every time he closes his eyes for the rest of his life.
Green was “the sweetest person you ever met” and well-loved by a family that accepted her for who she was “right from the beginning,” said her father, Albert Cannon.
“It’s a tragic, senseless act of violence committed by Dwight DeLee,” Chief Assistant District Attorney Matthew Doran, who prosecuted the case, told reporters.
“There was no good reason for it whatsoever,” Doran said. “It was an unprovoked homicide and no amount of time can truly do justice for this, but I’m glad and I think the court did the right thing by imposing the maximum sentence today.”
Outside the courthouse, the victim's uncle, Elliott Green, read a prepared statement in which the family called for understanding for people with different lifestyles like the victim.
Man gets maximum for hate-crime shooting of Syracuse transgender woman [contd.]
The DeLee prosecution was the first hate crime homicide prosecution in upstate New York’s Onondaga County. It also was the first hate crime conviction in New York involving a transgender victim and only the second in the country, according to the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, the Post Standard reports.
The law, which has been in effect in New York since 2000, allows a defendant to be prosecuted on hate crime charges when there is evidence that the crime was motivated on a belief or perception about the race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practices, age, disability, or sexual orientation of a person regardless of whether that perception or belief is correct.
In the trial, the prosecutor contended DeLee targeted Green to be murdered based on the victim’s sexual orientation.
Several witnesses testified DeLee and others at the scene made anti-gay slurs moments before the shooting. Several witnesses identified DeLee as the gunman.
Defense lawyer Clarence Johnson contended during the trial that there was no evidence that DeLee was the gunman who fired the fatal bullet. He also asserted that there was no evidence that DeLee had any specific intent to kill anyone if he was the gunman, and there was no evidence to support the hate crime prosecution that DeLee had any history of anti-gay bias that motivated him.
DeLee was acquitted of murder, according to Associated Press. The manslaughter conviction means he intended to injure, not kill, someone when he fired into a car where Green was sitting.
DeLee read a statement in court this morning maintaining he is innocent and attacking the media coverage of his case and the jury verdict against him. He offered an apology to the victim's family, but maintained he did not kill anybody.
“I'm no monster. I’m a young human being,” DeLee said.
Green’s father said outside the court house that he would accept DeLee's apology if it “came from the heart”.
“But I don't believe it came from the heart,” Cannon said. “I believe he just sat down and wrote it trying to impress the judge. But it didn’t impress me. The only justice we’ll have is when every young person in this world can live like they want to live. Then there will be justice.”
Source: Dwight DeLee gets the maximum in transgender slaying - syracuse.com