A 23-year-old Iowa resident was convicted Friday, Nov. 3 for the murder of 16-year-old gender-fluid teen Kedarie Johnson.

Last year, Kedarie was found in an alley shot to death gagged and his body doused with bleach. The Associated Press reports that the teen was kidnapped by Jorge Sanders-Galvez and his cousin Jaron Purham. They attempted to cover their tracks by dousing the teen with bleach but they left behind a trail of incriminating texts, Facebook messages and Kedarie's backpack was found at Sanders-Galvez's home.

According to The Des Moines Register, the jury only took 90 minutes to find Sanders-Galvez guilty of first-degree murder.

Prosecutor Christopher Perras, whom Attorney General Jeff Sessions assigned to the case, has detailed the events that occurred during the night of the killing.

On March 2, 2016, Kedarie and a fellow friend were followed by Sanders-Galvez and his cousin after teaching a class at a youth community center. The two men were in a red car outside of the friend's home and offered to give Kedarie a ride home. The teen declined, but they persisted. They forced Kedarie into the car, drove to a house where they routinely used for sexual encounters and this is when Kedarie was gagged with a rag and a plastic bag placed over his head. The two men left Kedarie in an alley and shot him twice and doused him with bleach.

Blavity reported last month that the teen moved from the West Side of Chicago to the mostly white town of Burlington, Iowa. Kedarie enjoyed dressing in women's clothing such as maxi skirts and he decorated his fingernails and wore hair weaves but he dated both males and females.

“He was very accepted by everyone,” his mother, Katrina Johnson, said. “That’s why his death really shook this town up.”

The prosecution believes that the two cousins were enraged to find out that Kedarie was not a woman and killed him out of anger. Under Iowa law, hate crimes are only against people for reasons that include race, religion and sexual orientation. Attacking and/or killing a person because of their gender identity is not considered a hate crime.

Even though that issue has brought criticism to the case, the family has received some form of justice. Sanders-Galvez will be sentenced Dec. 18 for the crime.

Kedarie Johnson

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