Brandon Michael Tyson, a white supremacist, was sentenced to life without parole for the murder of a Black trans woman in Oklahoma.
The Oklahoman reports Tyson, 32, pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Brooklyn BreYanna Stevenson, 31, in February. It was Oklahoma County District Judge Amy Palumbo's decision to determine if Tyson would receive life with or without the option of parole.
“Your actions show that you’re a liar, a thief and a murderer,” Palumbo said during the conviction. “You are a danger to the public. You have been given chance after chance after chance.”
Tyson, who is known as a member of the white supremacist group the Aryan Brotherhood, was previously convicted of crimes such as burglary and illegal possession of firearms as well as several other undisclosed pending felony charges, The Advocate reports. His defense attorney Gary Higginbotham expressed that his client has "nothing but remorse" for the victim and attempted to account his transgressions to drug use, but the presiding judge offered that the confessed murderer received many opportunities for rehabilitation in the past.
“I hope you pray for your salvation,” Palumbo said ahead of revealing Tyson had been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Brandon Michael Tyson will serve life without the possibility of parole for murdering Brooklyn BreYanna Stevenson in 2017. https://t.co/DpRj65burL
pic.twitter.com/JwworoMn0O— RoryVincent808 (@RoryVincent808) April 28, 2019
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Stevenson was found dead in an Oklahoma City motel on November 27, 2017.
Although the motive was not confirmedly linked to racism or transphobia, prosecutors detailed that Tyson and the victim engaged in sexual acts before her death. The violent aggressor admitted that he shot the trans woman but claimed it was out of self-defense.
Prosecutors noted that the police found no traces of a physical altercation on the victim or at the crime scene. Stevenson became the 25th reported murder of transgender persons, primarily women of color, in America that year, as Blavity covered. By the end of 2017, there were 27 reported victims.
Brooklyn BreYanna Stevenson became the latest Black trans woman murdered in the U.S. yesterday in Oklahoma City. pic.twitter.com/i87lXp83rk
— venus di’khadijah selenite (@venusselenite) November 29, 2017
Many of Stevenson's friends and family were present at the sentencing, including her mother, Vivian Stevenson, who spoke before the judge's decision.
“Burying a child is nothing that a parent should have to do, so with that being said, I never wanted the death penalty for you because I did not want your parents to have to go through what I am having to endure,” she said to her daughter's killer. “I do pray that you get life without parole, though, because you have proven by your actions that you do not deserve to be free ever again.”
Vivian warmly remembered her child as someone whose presence “lit up a room whenever she entered it.”
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