First federal gender-based hate crime trial starts in South Carolina over local trans woman’s killing
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WJBF/AP) — The first federal trial over a hate crime based on gender identity is set to begin Tuesday in South Carolina, where a man faces charges that he killed a Black transgender woman and then fled to New York.
The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that in August 2019, Daqua Lameek Ritter coaxed the woman — who is anonymously referred to as “Dime Doe” in court documents — into driving to Allendale County.
Ritter shot her three times in the head after they reached an isolated area near a relative’s home, according to Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where Ritter was arrested last January.
Family members say Dime’s body was found inside of a car in a driveway off of Concord Church Road.
NewsChannel 6 spoke with her family shortly after the incident.
“[Dime] always been a friendly person to everyone. The joy of anyone’s life. Family was most important.”
In recent years there has been a surge in attacks on the LGBTQ+ community. For decades, transgender women of color have faced disproportionately high rates of violence and hate crimes, according to the Department of Homeland Security. In 2022, the number of gender identity-based hate crimes reported by the FBI increased by 37% compared to the previous year.
The Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA) issued a statement in 2019 in response to Doe’s death and the killing of black trans women in general:
I’m devastated by the news of Dime Doe’s murder in Allendale County. While our community is still reeling from the murder of one of our transgender sisters in North Charleston just two weeks ago, we now learn that a second black trans woman has been murdered not even one hundred miles away. We are sounding the alarm— We are in an absolute state of emergency for black transgender women.
While the motives of Dime’s murder aren’t yet known, we do know that often, the crimes against trans women of color are fueled by anti-LGBTQ prejudice, racism and misogyny. Black trans women live at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities, are too often treated as disposable, and are experiencing epidemic levels of violence. We are at a crisis point that demands the nation’s attention. At this moment, there is no sense of peace or security for our transgender community— and there won’t be until their lives are truly respected and valued by society.
Today, we stand in solidarity with Dime’s family and friends. We lift up her name as she would have wanted to be remembered and we call out for justice for Dime and for all of the black trans women who are known to have been killed in South Carolina since 2018: Sasha Wall, Regina Denise Brown, Denali Berries Stuckey, and LaDime Doe.
Alliance for Full Acceptance
Until 2009, federal hate crime laws did not account for offenses motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The first conviction involving a victim targeted for their gender identity came in 2017. A Mississippi man who pleaded guilty to killing a 17-year-old transgender woman received a 49-year prison sentence.
But Tuesday marks the first time that such a case has ever been brought to trial, according to Brook Andrews, the assistant U.S. attorney for the District of South Carolina. Never before has a federal jury decided whether to punish someone for a crime based on the victim’s gender identity.
The government has said that Ritter’s friends and girlfriend learned about a sexual relationship between Ritter and the woman in the month prior to the killing. The two had been close friends, according to the defense, and were related through Ritter’s aunt and the woman’s uncle.
Prosecutors believe the revelation, which prompted Ritter’s girlfriend to hurl a homophobic slur, made Ritter “extremely upset.”
“His crime was motivated by his anger at being mocked for having a sexual relationship with a transgender woman,” government lawyers wrote in a filing last January.
MORE ON THE DEATH OF DIME DOE:
08/07/2019 – Transgender woman killed in Allendale County, SC; second in recent weeks in SC
02/01/2023 – Two men charged after murder of transgender woman in Allendale County
They say that Ritter lied that day about his whereabouts to state police and fled South Carolina. Prosecutors have said he enlisted others to help burn his clothes, hide the weapon and mislead police about his location on the day of the murder.
Government lawyers plan to present witness testimony about Ritter’s location and text messages with the woman, in which he allegedly persuaded her to take the ride. Evidence also includes video footage taken at a traffic stop that captures him in the woman’s car hours before her death.
Other evidence includes DNA from the woman’s car and testimony from multiple people who say that Ritter privately confessed to them about the fatal shooting.
Ritter’s lawyers have said it is no surprise that Ritter might have been linked to the woman’s car, considering their intimate ties. The defense has argued that no physical evidence points to Ritter as the perpetrator. Further, the defense has said the witnesses’ claims that Ritter tried to dispose of evidence are inconsistent.
Prosecutors don’t plan to seek the death penalty, but Ritter could receive multiple life sentences if convicted by a jury. In addition to the hate crimes charge, Ritter faces two other counts that he committed murder with a firearm and misled investigators.
Xavier Pinckney was also charged with two obstruction offenses for providing false and misleading statements to authorities investigating the murder Dime Doe.
Court documents say that Pinckney concealed from state investigators the use of his phone to call and text Dime Doe the day of the murder and lied to state and federal investigators about seeing Ritter after the morning of the murder.
He pleaded guilty in October of 2023 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the obstruction of justice offense.
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