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A known
gang member who was arrested last month for allegedly stabbing to death a
transgender girl in Mississippi appeared in court today
for a preliminary hearing in the murder case.
Joshua
Vallum, 28, (left) was arrested on June 2, the day police recovered the body
of 17-year-old transgender teen Mercedes Williamson (right) buried in his
father's backyard.
The
murder case in a rural Mississippi town gained national attention last
month, when Caitlyn Jenner mentioned Williamson as just one of the many
transgender teens murdered in the U.S. this year.
Prosecutors
say Vallum admitted to his father on June 1 that he killed someone and
hid their body in the wooded area behind the house.
Vallum allegedly told police that the remains belonged to Williamson, and his admission was confirmed with a DNA analysis.
Since then, the member of the Latin Kings gang has been held on $1million bail for first-degree murder charges.
While
the motivation behind the attack is still not known, police have said
that they are looking into whether Williamson's status as a transgender
woman may have played a role in her cruel end.
'We're
looking at several different things. It could have been gang-related, it
could have been a hate crime, we're not certain yet,' Shonna Pierce,
public information officer for the George County Sheriff's office, said.
'We're still in the process of investigating this murder. Mercedes
deserves justice and we're working diligently to make sure that she gets
justice.'
If that's the case, Vallum could face not only murder charges, but federal hate crime charges.
At
the time of her death, Williamson had apparently become estranged with
her family and had moved to nearby Theodore, Alabama, where she was
sleeping on the couch of 41-year-old friend Jeanie Miller's trailer
since September.
Miller
says the last time she saw Williamson was on May 30, around 2pm, when
the teen left to go spend some time at 'the bay' with a friend.
Miller
remembers seeing Williamson get into an unknown silver vehicle and then
driving off. When Williamson didn't return to the trailer for several
days, Miller called the friend who she thought had picked Williamson up
and the girl told her that the teen was dead.
'I
couldn't believe it,' Miller told the Sun Herald. 'I don't want to
hear. I miss how she flipped her hair. I miss the crooked teeth with
that beautiful smile. ... I can smell her. I just keep wanting her to
walk through that door. ... I'll never have nobody like her again. That
is barely something that crosses people's lives anyway. She is the most
beautiful person.'
While
police have not yet revealed how Williamson died, remarks on a Facebook
tribute page to the teen say stab wounds were found on her body.
Williamson,
who was born male and named Michael Wilkins by her parents, was an
aspiring cosmetologist who friends say also enjoyed spending time
outdoors. Miller said she regarded Williamson 'like a daughter'.
She
became the ninth known transgender woman killed in the U.S. for 2015,
according to data from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence
Programs.
Caitlyn Jenner referenced Williamson's death while accepting the Arthur Ashe courage award at this year's ESPYs.
'All
across this country, right now, all across the world, at this very
moment, there are young people coming to terms with being transgender.
They’re learning that they’re different and they are trying to figure
out how to handle that, on top of every other problem that a teenager
has.
'They’re
getting bullied, they’re getting beaten up, they’re getting murdered
and they’re committing suicide. The numbers that you just heard before
are staggering, but they are the reality of what it is like to be trans
today.
Source: UK Daily Mail
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