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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. Vallum initially told sheriff’s deputies and later told The Sun Herald newspaper that he found out that Williamson had a penis on moments before he killed her. Vallum can’t go back and undo what he did to Mercedes,” Allred said. She cited the Trump administration’s reversal of guidelines that transgender students nationwide should be able to use school bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity - among other steps.Īllred said Vallum first tried to kill himself when he was 7 or 8. Gordon said her group remains concerned how Trump policies will affect transgender people. LGBT advocates applauded federal officials’ first use of the 2009 hate crimes law to prosecute an offense against a transgender person.ĭemoya Gordon, attorney for the Transgender Rights Project of Lambda Legal, called the prosecution “significant” but noted it began under President Barack Obama’s administration and added “the cake was already baked” on Vallum’s sentencing when Donald Trump became president. “The Justice Department will continue its efforts to vindicate the rights of those individuals who are affected by bias motivated crimes.” “Today’s sentencing reflects the importance of holding individuals accountable when they commit violent acts against transgender individuals,” Sessions said in a statement. “She was a beautiful person.The case, watched nationally amid concerns transgender women are particularly vulnerable to violence, drew comment from U.S. “It’s a horrible case, a sad situation,” Shonna Pierce, spokesperson for the George County sheriff, told Hatewatch today. Miller, the dead girl’s roommate, told the paper that she knew Vallum and that Vallum knew Williamson was transgender.

The father called the authorities and helped them search for and find the body. On June 1, according to Sun Herald, Josh Vallum, the ex-con gang member charged with the murder, told his father that he had killed someone and left the body in the underbrush behind his father’s house. When Williamson did not return for a couple of days, Miller said she grew alarmed and called one of the teenager’s friends, who informed her that Williamson was dead. on May 30 when Williams left the camper, saying she was going to Gulf Shores. Miller told the paper she last saw Williamson around 2 p.m. “I was overprotective of her because she was closer to me than my own daughter,” Miller said. They were more like mother and daughter than roommates, Miller told the paper. Williamson slept on the sofa in the front of the camper. Williamson lived in a rented, $50-a-week, one-bedroom camper in Theodore with Jeanie Miller, 41, according to the Sun Herald. There is no dispute that the life of young transwoman has been snuffed out. But the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs released a similar report last year, finding that 344 trans people had been victimized in 2013, 13 of them killed. Just last year, for the first time, the FBI published statistics on the number of hate crimes based on gender identity, finding that 33 people were victimized in 2013, the latest numbers available. It’s absolutely rooted in transphobia and hatred and it’s absolutely a national crisis. “We’ve had people’s genitals mutilated after they’re dead. “We’ve had people burned in their homes,” Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, a policy adviser for the Washington D.C.-based group, told the SPLC. The report quotes a study by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) that says since 2013 nearly 30 transgender women, most of them black and Latino, have been slain. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) recently published an in-depth report on anti-transgender violence taking place across the country.

“We will do a thorough investigation to bring justice to the victim’s family.” “We are trying to determine whether (the killing) is drug-related, gang-related or a hate crime,” George County sheriff’s Capt. Agents with the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force have joined deputies from the George County Sheriff’s Department in the investigation, according to the Sun Herald newspaper of Gulfport, Mississippi. Bond for the ex-con has been set at $1 million.Ī motive for the slaying has not been established. Josh Brandon Vallum, charged with slaying Mercedes WilliamsonĪn alleged street gang member, Josh Brandon Vallum, 27, has been charged with her slaying and is in jail.