NEW YORK — A New York attorney on Thursday said the murder of a transgender woman wasn’t worth the same punishment as if his client had killed someone “in the higher end of the community.”
“A sentence of 25 years to life is an incredibly long period of time judge,” said John Scarpa, as he asked a judge to go easy on his client, Rasheen Everett, who was convicted last month in the 2010 murder of Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar.
“Shouldn’t that be reserved for people who are guilty of killing certain classes of individuals?” asked Scarpa, according to the New York Post:
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Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter scolded Scarpa as he sentenced Everett to 29 years in prison.
“This court believes every human life in sacred,” he said. “It’s not easy living as a transgender, and I commend the family for supporting her.”
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Everett, 32, was convicted of strangling Gonzalez-Andujar last month. They had met through an ad, and he was allegedly shocked to find she had male genitalia.
Throughout the proceedings, Scarpa stunned the victim’s family as he detailed her sexual past.
“Amanda was engaged in a life of prostitution, life of drug use, HIV exposure,” Sharpa said. “She was having sex with other individuals knowing she had the chance of spreading diseases.”
Gonzalez-Andujar, 29, was found dead in her ransacked New York apartment on March 30, 2010, her naked body sprawled across the bed. She had been stabbed several times, including in the neck and chest.
Buchter described Everett as “coldhearted and violent menace to society” before handing down his sentence.
