New Yorker Daqua Ritter found guilty of historic hate crime for trans lover’s murder
Two-timing New Yorker Daqua Lameek Ritter has been convicted of a groundbreaking federal hate crime for gunning down his transgender lover — done in by trying to delete his texts about their secret fling, according to the jury foreperson, who is also a transgender woman.
The 26-year-old Brooklyn native on Friday became the first person to be convicted of a federal hate crime based on gender identity for killing Pebbles LaDime Doe, 24, in the small South Carolina town where he spent summers with relatives.
Jurors immediately agreed that Ritter shot dead Doe and then obstructed justice by repeatedly lying about it. But agreeing it was driven by hate is “what took four hours,” said jury foreperson Dee Elder, a transgender woman from Aiken, about 50 miles from the murder scene in Allendale.
“Motive is just a harder thing to prove,” said Elder. “How do you look between someone’s ears?”
The key was the hundreds of text messages obtained by the FBI, including many Ritter deleted while trying to keep his fling a secret, Elder said.
The messages — many on an app called TextNow that hides the sender’s ID — included many with Ritter ordering his transgender love to hide their exchanges, with Doe saying she felt used.
They also included Ritter’s alarm that his girlfriend, Delasia Green, had found out about the affair — and called him homophobic slurs.
The messages showed that Ritter “was using this poor girl” and “taking advantage” of their connection, Elder said.
“When she had the nerve to be happy about it and wanted to share it with her friends, he got nervous and scared that others would find out, and put an end to it,” she added.
Elder said that the trial reaffirmed her fears that “it can be dangerous for transgender women to date.”
But she also found sweet justice that a transgender woman was on the jury of 12 reaching such a historic verdict.
“We are everywhere. If one of us goes down, there’ll be another one of us on the jury,” she said. “And we’ve always been here. We’re just now letting ourselves be known.”
Prosecutors previously told the trial that Ritter had lied to his girlfriend, claiming that Doe was a cousin.
But Green testified that she found messages about Ritter “getting a room” with someone she had a “gut feeling” was Doe.
He then became “enraged” when he learned that Doe had told one of her friends about their relationship, claimed Ben Garner, an assistant US attorney for the district of South Carolina.
“He killed her to silence her,” Garner told the jury.
Ritter lured her into driving around the quiet neighborhood in Allendale County, with his distinctive left wrist tattoo caught on body camera footage when Doe was pulled over by police and given a $72 ticket on the day she was killed — despite his claims to police that he did not see Doe that day.
Two and a half hours later, Doe’s body was found slumped over in the driver’s side of the car — parked in a driveway off a secluded road close to where Ritter’s uncle lived.
Friends said he seemed “on edge” following Doe’s murder — with one even claiming he saw the suspect empty a book bag into a fire that night and asked him to dispose of a gun.
“Nobody gonna have to worry about [Doe] anymore,” Ritter said, according to another friend at the alleged burning.
Ritter was also found guilty of using a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting and obstructing justice. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled. Ritter faces a maximum of life imprisonment without parole.
“This case stands as a testament to our committed effort to fight violence that is targeted against those who may identify as a member of the opposite sex, for their sexual orientation or for any other protected characteristics,” said Brook Andrews, an assistant US attorney for the District of South Carolina.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke called the verdict “historic.”
“The jury’s verdict sends a clear message: Black trans lives matter, bias-motivated violence will not be tolerated, and perpetrators of hate crimes will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Clarke said.
With Post wires.
