Minneapolis man sentenced to 30 years for murder of transgender woman

A Minneapolis man was sentenced to more than three decades in prison for killing a transgender woman in November, though prosecutors said they couldn’t prove the crime was bias-motivated.

A judge in Hennepin County, Minnesota, sentenced Damarean Kaylon Bible, 25, to 367 months — or nearly 31 years — in prison for second-degree murder after he fatally shot Savannah Ryan Williams, a 38-year-old trans woman who was well known among the local trans community, according to NBC affiliate KARE of Minneapolis.

“This senseless act of violence against a Native and Cuban transgender woman has left a family without a daughter, a partner without their person, and a community without the vibrant light that Savannah uniquely brought to every room she was in,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a news conference after the sentencing. “Savannah deserved safety.”

Bible told police that he shot Williams following a sex act because he felt “suspicious” about her. After a thorough investigation, Moriarty said, her office could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime was bias-motivated but added that hate still could have been a factor.

“The fact that we could not charge this as a bias crime does not change the impact that this crime has had on making our trans community feel less safe,” Moriarty said, according to KARE. “Across the country and in our community, hateful acts of violence against transgender people are on the rise. Every time a trans person is attacked, the entire community feels less safe.”

Moriarty said Williams’ murder is part of a trend of escalating violence against trans people, particularly trans people of color, in recent years. Trans people are four times more likely than cisgender people to be the victims of violent crimes, according to a 2021 report from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

Since 2013, the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ rights group, has identified 335 trans and gender-nonconforming people who were violently killed, and 85% of them were trans people of color. So far this year, at least 25 trans and gender-expansive people have been violently killed, according to the HRC.

Kim Stillday, Williams’ mother, described her daughter as her best friend.

“Savannah still lives on,” she said through tears in a victim impact statement during the sentencing hearing, The Minnesota Star Tribune reported. “Her memory makes us laugh and smile.”

Gabrielle Stillday, one of Williams' sisters, said she never got to say goodbye to her sister, “but something I’ll always remember she told me was to never say goodbye, to say, ‘See you later,’” Stillday said at a news conference, according to KARE.

Williams’ other sister, Kelly Stillday, said Bible’s actions “have forever stained our lives with grief,” KARE reported.

“It shows you, Savannah was a magnet,” Kelly Stillday said. “She pulled everyone towards her, including the defendant.”

Bible briefly addressed Williams’ family during Wednesday’s hearing, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

“I completely apologize,” Bible said. “I feel like I do need to sit down and do some time.”

Minnesota state Rep. Leigh Finke, the first trans person elected to the state’s Legislature, said the governing body’s Queer Caucus would continue to “do everything in our power at the Capitol to solve this crisis” of violence against trans people.

“Savannah Ryan Williams was a beloved member of the trans and Two Spirit community, and she should be alive today,” Finke said, according to KARE. “The data is clear that trans people, especially trans people of color, suffer violence at rates far greater than our cisgender neighbors.”

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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com