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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – A South Carolina man was convicted Friday of killing a Black transgender woman in the nation’s first federal trial on an alleged gender identity-based hate crime.
Jurors determined that Daqua Ramek Ritter shot and killed Dime Doe three times on Aug. 4, 2019, because of her gender identity. Ritter was also convicted of using a firearm and obstruction of justice in connection with the crime.
The four-day trial began in the small town of Allendale, South Carolina, between Doe and Ritter, who had been agitated by revelations about their affair in the weeks before the murders, according to witness testimony and obtained text messages. The focus was on the secret sexual relationship between them. According to the FBI.
There have been hate crime prosecutions in the past based on gender identity, but none of them went to trial. A Mississippi man was sentenced to 49 years in prison as part of a plea deal in 2017 after admitting to killing a 17-year-old transgender woman.
This is the latest news. Previous articles from the Associated Press are below.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A black transgender woman and the man she was secretly dating had just been pulled over in rural South Carolina. The driver, Daime Do, was worried. She already had violation points on her license and she didn’t want another ticket to prevent her from getting behind the wheel. Daqua Ramek Ritter, whom her girlfriend affectionately referred to as her “my man,” frequently relied on her for rides.
Everything seemed to be going well. That afternoon, Ms. Doe texted her mother and told her she had gotten a $72 ticket but that she was “okay.”
Hours later, police found her slumped in the driver’s seat of a car parked in a secluded driveway. The woman, who died on August 4, 2019, is currently the subject of the nation’s first federal trial for alleged hate crimes based on gender identity, which began on Tuesday.
Much of what happened in the roughly two-and-a-half hours between when Doe was last seen and when her body was found remains unknown. But as prosecutors wrap up their charges this week, the relationship between Doe, 24, who is remembered by friends as an outspoken party lover, and Ritter, whose distinctive left wrist tattoo is captured on his body. More details have been revealed about their secret relationship. Camera footage of the road closure.
Ritter is charged with “hate crime of murder of a transgender woman because of her gender identity,” using a firearm in connection with a hate crime and obstructing justice.
The U.S. Department of Justice claims Doe was killed to prevent further exposure of their relationship in a small, rural town, where rumors were already circulating. Text message exchanges between the two show that Ritter attempted to dispel relationship gossip in the weeks before Doe’s death. He also coyly answered his primary girlfriend’s questions in the days that followed, following the investigation into her murder, according to trial testimony.
In Allendale, South Carolina (population 8,000), it was common knowledge that Ms. Doe began her transition into womanhood immediately after graduating from high school, her close friends testified. Dou put on a skirt, did her nails and started putting on her extensions. She went drinking with her friends. They talked about the boys they were dating.
One of those boys was Ritter, who came from New York to visit family for the summer. Doe and Ritter became close during their stay, and Ritter’s girlfriend of choice in the summer of 2019, DeLacia Green, had a “gut feeling” that something was up.
Ritter initially said Green and Doe were cousins, his girlfriend testified this week. But then she found a message on his cell phone from an unsaved number that read, “Get a room.” She thought it was from Doe.
When Green confronted Ritter, he became upset and told her she shouldn’t question her sexuality, she said.
Doe’s cousin, Jana Albany, also testified that she had a relationship with Ritter over the summer, but that they broke off about three weeks later after Doe told her he was seeing Ritter. Ms. Albany said that when Ms. Ritter broke up with her, Ms. Ritter turned red, threatened to punch Doe for “lying,” and called her homophobic slurs.
Nevertheless, Doe and Ritter’s relationship appears to have grown stronger after this entanglement, Albany said. Other friends said Doe never mentioned the drama between the two.
Still, documents obtained by the FBI suggest that Ritter tried to keep their relationship as secret as possible. He reminded Do to delete her communications from her phone, and most of the hundreds of text messages sent in the month before her death were deleted.
Shortly before Doe’s death, the text messages began to become tense. In a July 29, 2019 message, she complained that Ritter did not reciprocate her generosity. He replied that she thought they understood that she didn’t need “extras.” He also said Greene had recently insulted him with homophobic slurs. Doe said in a July 31 email that she felt she was used and that Ritter should never have let his girlfriend know about them.
Ritter’s lawyer said the sample messages presented by prosecutors were only a “snapshot” of the exchange. They pointed to a July 18 text in which Doe encouraged Ritter and another exchange in which Ritter thanked Doe for one of his many kindnesses.
But witnesses gave other potentially damning testimony against Ritter.
On the day Doe died, a group of friends saw the defendant leave in a silver car with tinted windows. Cordell Jenkins, an acquaintance of Ritter’s, testified that he had previously seen Doe driving the car. When Ritter returned to play cards a few hours later, Jenkins said he was wearing a new costume and seemed “nervous.” It was a summer day with lots of insects, and the group of four started building a fire in the barrel to extinguish the mosquitoes.
Mr. Jenkins testified that Mr. Ritter emptied his book bag into the barrel. Although he couldn’t see what was inside, he assumed it was an item Ritter no longer wanted, perhaps clothes he had been wearing earlier in the day.
When the two ran into each other the next day, Jenkins said, he saw the silver handle of a handgun sticking out from the waistline of Ritter’s pants. Ritter reportedly asked him to stop.
Defense attorneys argued that it was absurd to think Ritter would ask someone he barely knew to dispose of the alleged murder weapon.
However, shortly after Doe’s death, Arendelle was abuzz with rumors that Ritter had killed her.
Greene testified that when she showed up at her cousin’s house in Columbia later that week, he was dirty and smelly and couldn’t stop walking around. Her cousin’s boyfriend gave Ritter a ride to the bus stop, presumably so she could go home to New York. Before leaving, Green asked if he had killed Doe.
“He bowed his head and gave me a little smile,” Green said.
FBI Special Agent Clay Trippi said Ritter was monitoring the aftermath of Doe’s death from New York, citing Facebook messages between Ritter and a friend, Xavier Pinckney, of Allendale. On August 11, Pinckney told Ritter that no one was “telling the truth,” which Trippi took as a reference to poor cooperation with police. said.
But by Aug. 14, Pinckney had warned Ritter to stay away from Allendale because of a visit from state police. He later said someone was “snitching.”
Trippi testified that sources never saw Ritter again in Arendelle during the summer after Doe’s death.
Federal authorities charged Pinckney with obstruction of justice, alleging that he made false and misleading statements.
Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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