Manslaughter Charges in Beating Death of Transgender Woman

[Pdoggg]

 

A Brooklyn man was charged with manslaughter on Tuesday in the killing of a transgender woman who died after a vicious beating in Harlem in 2013, a crime that galvanized anger among transgender people in New York about violence directed toward them.

 

The arrest of the man, James Dixon, 24, came after an 18-month investigation of the attack on Islan Nettles that included the earlier arrest of another man who was present but turned out not to be the assailant, prosecutors said.

 

Mr. Dixon, of Classon Avenue, pleaded not guilty to first-degree manslaughter and related charges in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. He was sent to jail by Justice Robert M. Stolz to await a bail hearing next month. His lawyer, Norman Williams, declined to comment on the indictment.

 

An assistant prosecutor, Nicholas Viorst, said that Mr. Dixon had come forward just days after the attack and made statements to detectives acknowledging that he had beaten Ms. Nettles.

 

Still, it took the Manhattan district attorney’s office a year and a half to find witnesses and build a case against Mr. Dixon, in part because there was an earlier suspect muddying the picture. “These are some pretty unique circumstances,” Mr. Viorst said.

Photo

 

Islan Nettles

Just after midnight on Aug. 17, 2013, Ms. Nettles was walking on Frederick Douglass Boulevard with two transgender friends when they encountered a group of at least seven young men, Mr. Viorst said. The groups walked south together and a shouting match erupted between them.

 

Mr. Viorst said Mr. Dixon “abruptly struck” Ms. Nettles in the face with a closed fist, knocking her to the ground and slamming her head on the pavement. He then leaned over her and pounded her head with his fist, ramming her head repeatedly into the pavement, the prosecutor said.

 

Ms. Nettles, 21, an assistant at a fashion company who aspired to become a clothing designer, was battered beyond recognition. She lingered in a coma for less than a week before being taken off life support.

 

Hours after the attack, the police arrested Paris Wilson, 20, of Harlem, who wore similar clothes and bore a resemblance to Mr. Dixon, Mr. Viorst said. Both men had been in the group.

 

Three days later, Mr. Dixon visited Mr. Wilson at his home and promised to take responsibility for the assault, Mr. Viorst said. Then Mr. Wilson’s mother escorted Mr. Dixon to a police station, where he made statements acknowledging it was he who had assaulted Ms. Nettles, Mr. Viorst said.

 

Those statements, though incriminating, did not immediately clear up the matter, prosecutors said. Witnesses had identified Mr. Wilson as the attacker and no surveillance cameras captured the crime, law enforcement officials said.

Photo

 

Norman Williams, the lawyer for James Dixon, who is charged with manslaughter, leading Mr. Dixon’s family out of court. Credit Michael Appleton for The New York Times

Charges were eventually dropped against Mr. Wilson in November 2013, and investigators continued to look for evidence, prosecutors said.

 

The case was presented last week to a grand jury, which voted to indict Mr. Dixon on first- and second-degree manslaughter charges, as well as first-degree assault. The jury did not charge Mr. Dixon with murder, which would have required proving he intended to kill Ms. Nettles.

Though the police initially said the attackers had taunted Ms. Nettles with gay slurs before the attack, the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., did not seek to charge Mr. Dixon with a hate crime.

 

Asked why the district attorney did not seek a hate-crime indictment, Joan Vollero, a spokeswoman for Mr. Vance, said that “the grand jury considered all of the available evidence when making its charging decision.” She did not elaborate.

 

A hate-crime indictment would have required the prosecution to prove Mr. Dixon’s motive for killing Ms. Nettles was that she was transgender. Investigators have not been able to determine what was said before the first blow was struck, law enforcement officials said.

 

Ms. Nettles’s killing incensed the transgender community in New York and prompted vigils, protests and the formation of an advocacy group, the Trans Women of Color Collective. For many, Ms. Nettles’s death became emblematic of violence against transgender people, who are often the targets of beatings, and what many of them see as the indifference the authorities show across the country to the killings of men transitioning to women.

 

Lourdes Hunter, the director of the Trans Women of Color Collective, said the long delay in bringing charges against Mr. Dixon reflected the low priority such cases have among the police and prosecutors. Ms. Hunter also questioned why the attack was not treated as a hate crime, because no motive other than Ms. Nettles’s sexual orientation had been suggested. She also wondered why Mr. Dixon was not charged with murder.

 

“Really this was murder,” Ms. Hunter said. “He intentionally pummeled her to death.”

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/04/nyregion/manslaughter-charges-in-beating-death-of-transgender-woman-in-2013.html

 

[ArchieBunker]

Read about this in the paper.  Hope they nail him.  They probably dont have a really strong case and thats why the DA only charged him with manslaughter........

[williethepimp]

Call me racist if you like,but the black community really do have a serious homophobe problem.....all that macho hip hop bollox results ,or certainly plays a part in this murder,and thats what it is.....

[Pdoggg]

A Brooklyn man who beat a transgender woman to death after he had started flirting with her was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Tuesday, a penalty the victim’s family said was too light.

 

The man, James Dixon, 25, pleaded guilty to manslaughter this month in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, admitting he attacked the woman, Islan Nettles, on a street in Harlem just after midnight on Aug. 17, 2013, knocking her to the pavement with a punch, then hitting her again as she lay on the sidewalk.

 

Ms. Nettles, 21, an assistant at a fashion company, died five days later of head injuries, prompting vigils and protests by transgender people who said her death was emblematic of the violence they often face because of their sexual identity.

 

While Ms. Nettles was still in a coma, Mr. Dixon turned himself in to the police. In written and videotaped statements, he told detectives that he had started flirting with Ms. Nettles, unaware she was transgender, after meeting her and her two friends on the street. He said he became enraged and attacked her when his friends began mocking him for trying to pick up a transgender woman. “I just didn’t want to be fooled,” he said in a videotaped statement.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/20/nyregion/man-sentenced-to-12-years-in-beating-death-of-transgender-woman.html

[Kahuna]

And all along I thought being fooled was the fun part..............

 

 

...he told detectives that he had started flirting with Ms. Nettles, unaware she was transgender, after meeting her and her two friends on the street. He said he became enraged and attacked her when his friends began mocking him for trying to pick up a transgender woman. “I just didn’t want to be fooled,” he said in a videotaped statement.

 

 

 

 

Death is a heavy price for fooling one man....

 

And all along I thought being fooled was the fun part.........

[deepthroat]

That does seem like a pretty light sentence.

 

As for black homophobia, I'm not sure...  my GF is trans, grew up in The Bronx, and said that most of the guys that hit on her on the subway and out/about were usually black. My experience on a mostly-black porn forum (homegrownfreaks.net) is that the guys there freak out if someone posts a trans video "by accident", so maybe.

 

Am on the fence on that one Willie

[notagooname]

I don't know, by observation the "freak outs" and aggressive behavior for the most mundane idiotic things i see done by members of the aa community are all for drama and exposure...quite frankly act like an idiot get treated like an idiot.

 

the aa community has taken the idea of saving face to a new level, following the black lives matter campaign has reinforced my opinion about this.  quite honestly the campaign needs to focus its efforts on their own community before branching out,  for their message to hold any validity its got to start at home not outside in.

 

as for mr dixon, if he didn't want his proclivities to be public he should have kept them private, he got less than he deserved

[strocube]

Call me racist if you like,but the black community really do have a serious homophobe problem.....all that macho hip hop bollox results ,or certainly plays a part in this murder,and thats what it is.....

Another factor that plays into all that homophobia, is that a big part of the African American community is deeply fundamentalist christian. So Jebus and the fucking church are huge part of all that horrible shit as well.

[williethepimp]

Another factor that plays into all that homophobia, is that a big part of the African American community is deeply fundamentalist christian. So Jebus and the fucking church are huge part of all that horrible shit as well.

could be.....fundamentalist christians muslims and jews disagree about most things ,except.....god hates fags

 

.....I still think the hip hop "music" mentality has  a lot to answer for ..in this particular case ,the murderer was enraged because his "macho" image was threatened....have you ever listened to the homophobic shite that is gangster rap?

[strocube]

Can't say I have, WTP. But then again, I find most of what passes for popular "music" these days an abomination. "You kids, get off my lawn!" Wtf happened to actual rock and roll written and played by real humans?