Remembering Our Dead

Yazmin Vash Payne

Yazmin was stabbed several times by her boyfriend. He then set the apartment ablaze.

Firefighters responding to a call of a fire at the apartment complex in the 14600 block of Saticoy Street found Payne on the kitchen floor with multiple stab wounds to the torso. Paramedics pronounced Payne dead at the scene.

The next day, Dear walked into a South Los Angeles police station accompanied by a pastor and was interviewed by homicide detectives, LAPD Sgt. Neil Wank said. He was arrested and charged with murder.

The slaying was one of several acts of violence against transgender people in recent years and galvanized local activists to shut down traffic outside the Beverly Center in protest.

Subsequently Ezekiel Jamal Dear, 27, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and arson and sentenced to a prison term of 12 years and 8 months.

TvT project: The Advocate 02.02.2015 & NY Daily News 02.02.2015 & The Mirror 03.02.2015

https://www.advocate.com/crime/2016/12/02/la-man-gets-12-year-sentence-trans-womans-death

https://abc7.com/news/boyfriend-sought-in-murder-of-transgender-woman-in-van-nuys-/498965/

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-transgender-woman-killing-20161201-story.html

Report added: 31 Oct 2018. Last updated: 28 Feb 2021

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