Prosecutors said Vallum shocked 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson with a stun gun, stabbed her and beat her to death in 2015 to keep fellow Latin Kings gang members from discovering the two were having sex. It was the first case prosecuted under the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act involving a victim targeted because of gender identity. sentenced Joshua Vallum in the 2015 killing of 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson. In a case watched by the LGBT community nationwide, U.S. 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. Watch the Sun Herald's interview with Jeanie Miller below.GULFPORT, Miss. in all of 2014, though this does not account for individuals whose deaths were not reported or investigated, nor for victims who were misgendered or not regarded as trans women in death. By comparison, 12 transgender women were murdered in the U.S.
Ty Underwood, 24, in North Tyler, Texas, and Lamia Beard, 30, in Norfolk, Va.īri Golec, 22, of Akron, Ohio, has been identified as a possible other victim, though there exist conflicting reporst frome friends and family about Golec identified. in 2015, in what trans advocates have labeled an "epidemic" of transphobic violence that has taken the lives of London Kiki Chanel, 21, in Philadelphia Kristina Gomez Reinwald, 46, in Miami Penny Proud, 21, in New Orleans Taja DeJesus, 36, in San Francisco Yazmin Vash Payne, 33, in Los Angeles Papi Edwards, 20, in Louisville, Ky. Williamson is the ninth known trans woman murdered in the U.S. Vallum is currently being held at George County jail on $1 million bond. It remains unclear whether Williamson's murder was related to Vallum's gang activity. Hate-crime charges have not been filed in the case, and police have not revealed a motive. That is barely something that crosses people's lives anyway. I just keep wanting her to walk through that door. I miss the crooked teeth with that beautiful smile. "I couldn't believe it," Miller told the newspaper through tears in the video interview below. The girl informed her Williamson was dead. Williamson was supposed to be picked up by a friend, but a witness said she departed in an unknown silver vehicle.Īfter Williamson did not return home for several days, Miller says she called the friend who she thought had picked Williamson up. the day she was murdered, saying she was going to spend time at "the bay" in Gulf Shores. Miller told the Herald she last saw the trans teen, who Miller said she loved like a "daughter," when she left their trailer around 2 p.m. Williamson had been sleeping on the couch in the one-bedroom trailer's front room since September. The Herald found that Williamson, an aspiring cosmetologist who enjoyed spending time outdoors, appeared to be estranged from her Mississippi birth family, as she had moved alone from Alabama's Gulf Shores to the town of Theodore, to live in a trailer with 41-year-old friend Jeanie Miller. Williamson was misgendered by local Alabama media until the Sun Herald, a Mississippi newspaper, sent reporters to the neighboring state to learn more about her life as a transgender woman. A Facebook tribute page to Williamson indicates that she allegedly died from stab wounds. Vallum reportedly knew Williamson was a trans woman before he murdered her, notes the Herald. The Herald reports that Josh Vallum is a longtime member of the Latin Kings street gang.Ī DNA sample provided by Mercedes Williamson's family confirmed that the remains in Vallum's backyard belonged to the transgender teen, according to the Herald. Bobby Vallum reported the confession to police, who found a partially decomposed body hidden under debris on the property at 9 a.m.
Josh Brandon Vallum, 28, was charged with Williamson's murder several days after police recovered the teen's body.Ī day after the murder, Vallum had told his father Bobby Vallum on June 1 that he had killed a person and buried their body in the wooded field behind his father's Rocky Creek home, according to police records. In early June, police from George County, Mississippi, unearthed the body of 17-year-old trans woman Mercedes Williamson, buried on May 30 in Rocky Creek, Alabama after she was reportedly murdered, according to southern Mississippi's Sun Herald.