A 25-year-old man was charged Tuesday with murdering a transgender woman whose body was found last week in their burning Van Nuys apartment.
Ezekiel Jamal Dear — who turned himself in Sunday afternoon at the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Street Station — pleaded not guilty this afternoon to one felony count each of murder, with a knife-use allegation, and arson of an inhabited structure or property.
The victim — described by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office as Dear’s live-in partner — was stabbed to death before a fire was set in the apartment. Police said earlier that the victim — who is listed in the criminal complaint only as “Yazmin Michael P” — was known as Yazmin Payne and that she had previously been known as Michael Vash Payne.
LAPD homicide Detective Robert Bub said neighbors heard arguments and what sounded like fighting coming from the apartment. Firefighters dispatched at 5:06 a.m. Saturday to the 14600 block of Saticoy Street made entry and quickly put out a small fire in the rear bedroom.
The 33-year-old victim was found lying on the kitchen floor. She had suffered multiple stab wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives recovered the murder weapon at the scene, according to police.
Members of the area’s gay, lesbian and transgender community and other supporters held a vigil for Payne in Van Nuys on Sunday night.
The National LGBTQ Task Force is “outraged by the ongoing murders of transgender women taking place all across the county,” said task force Deputy Executive Director Darlene Nipper. “Three transgender women of color have been killed in the last four months in Los Angeles and there seems to be no end in sight to these tragic homicides.”
— City News Service