Photo: Moment RF
A Philadelphia man has been convicted of first-degree murder for mutilating and killing a 27-year-old transgender woman.
According to PEOPLE, Akhenaton Jones, 41, was convicted in the June 2020 killing of Dominique Rem’mie Fells.
“I applaud Assistant District Attorney Ashley Toczylowski for her skillful prosecution of this difficult and horrifying case,” Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said in a statement.
“I also want to thank our victim support staff for standing with the victim’s family for five long years, and to the jury for delivering justice for Rem’mie, who was by all accounts a remarkable and creative woman loved by her family, friends and community,” Krasner said.
On June 8, 2020, Fells' body was found floating in the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. Authorities found her torso, which had over 40 stab wounds, before discovering her legs in a trash bag on the banks of the river three days later.
Witnesses told authorities that Fells had spent time with Jones at his Philadelphia home. The witnesses left the home that night and later returned to Fells dead in a pool of her own blood.
During a search of Jones' home, investigators found blood spattered everywhere, a knife, an electric saw, and a white hazmat suit. Jones fled to California and was arrested in Los Angeles on November 9, 2020. Authorities matched Jones' DNA to DNA recovered at the scene of the crime.
In a statement, the Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs acknowledged how there have been at least 372 cases of fatal violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people in the U.S. since 2014. Nearly half of these deaths were of Black transgender women.
“We are reminded with this, and countless other painful losses — especially within our transgender communities — that there is much left to do until we achieve full equality, respect and support for us all,” The Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs said. “The murder of transgender people, especially those of color, is truly an epidemic, and a crisis that we cannot afford to allow to persist any further.”
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