The US attorney's office for the Southern District of Mississippi prosecuted the hate crime. Josh Vallum, 28, entered a guilty plea for murder in the 2015 beating death of 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson of Theodore, Alabama. Hate Crimes Prevention Act - criminalizes violence based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity. "The Justice Department will continue its efforts to vindicate the rights of those individuals who are affected by bias motivated crimes."Ī federal law - the Matthew Shepard, James Byrd Jr. "Today's sentencing reflects the importance of holding individuals accountable when they commit violent acts against transgender individuals," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. Vallum picked up Mercedes Williamson, 17, at Dauphin Island. Vallum had previously pleaded guilty in state court to murder charges in George County, Mississippi, and was sentenced to life in prison.īecause Mississippi does not have a statute that protects people from bias crimes based on gender identity, the federal government was able to bring federal hate crime charges. Latin Kings street gang member Josh Vallum pleaded guilty to murder Tuesday in the stabbing and beating death of a transgender teen. Vallum admitted that he killed Williamson because she was transgender. The prison term is in addition to the life sentence he received in Mississippi for killing 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson in 2015. He would not have killed Williamson if she was not transgender, he said. A judge sentenced Joshua Vallum to 49 years in federal prison under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. In his guilty plea to the hate crime on December 21, he admitted to lying about the circumstances surrounding her death. Vallum initially claimed he killed Williamson in a panic after learning she was transgender. As she tried to flee he stabbed her repeatedly and used a hammer to deliver deadly blows, the Justice Department said. Hate Crimes Prevention Act involving a victim targeted on the basis of gender identity. This was the first case ever prosecuted under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. ![]() ![]() Vallum, a member of the Almighty Latin Kings and Queens Nation crime gang, feared reprisals from gang members if they found out about the relationship, the Justice Department said.Īfter luring the 17-year-old into his car under false pretenses, he assaulted her and stabbed her with a pocket knife, prosecutors said. The presenters discussed their work in 20 prosecuting Joshua Vallum for the assault and murder of Mercedes Williamson, a 17-year-old transgender woman. They broke up in 2014 but Vallum decided to kill her in May 2015 because a friend had discovered she was transgender, the Justice Department said. Vallum knew Mercedes Williamson was a transgender teenage girl when they began dating, but kept her gender identity secret, prosecutors said. Joshua Vallum, 29, of Lucedale is the first person prosecuted for a federal hate crime in which the victim was targeted for being transgender, the Justice Department said in a news release. A Mississippi man was sentenced to 49 years in prison Monday and fined $20,000 for killing his ex-girlfriend because she was transgender, the US Justice Department said.
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