Matthew J. Perry Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Columbia. (Abraham Kenmore/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — A South Carolina man is sentenced to life in prison for murdering a 24-year-old Black transgender woman after rumors spread in rural Allendale that the two of them were in a sexual relationship, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
Daqua Ritter’s life sentence Thursday followed the first trial in the nation for a federal hate crime involving gender identity. A jury found him guilty in February of all charges: murder involving a firearm, killing her because of her gender, and misleading investigators.
Jury convicts man for federal hate crime in 2019 slaying of SC transgender woman
“This sentence reflects the gravity of Ritter’s horrific crime,” said Steve Jensen, special agent in charge of the FBI Columbia office, said in a news release announcing the sentence.
Dime Doe was shot three times in the head on Aug. 4, 2019.
Prosecutors proved Ritter used a friend’s phone to text Doe that afternoon to ask her to pick him up. Her body was found slumped over the wheel of her car on an abandoned property in Allendale County, one of South Carolina’s poorest and most rural counties, with a population of just 8,000.