A South Carolina man was charged with a federal hate crime for the 2019 killing of a Black transgender woman.
Daqua Ritter, 26, allegedly shot Pebbles LaDime "Dime" Doe to death because of her "actual or perceived gender identity," the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday in a news release. He was also charged with using a firearm in connection with the hate crime and obstruction of justice.
The body of 24-year-old Dime Doe was found inside a car parked in a driveway in Allendale County, near the Georgia border, on Aug. 4, 2019. She had been shot to death.
According to an indictment shared by the U.S. Attorney's Office of the District of South Carolina, Ritter misled state investigators about his whereabouts on the day of the murder.
A second South Carolina man was also charged in the 2019 killing.
Xavier Pinckney, 24, was charged with two obstruction offenses for providing false and misleading statements to authorities investigating the killing of the victim.
The indictment alleges that Pinckney concealed from state investigators the use of his phone to call and text on the day of the murder and also lied to authorities about seeing Ritter after the murder.
The hate crime count against Ritter carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The charges of obstruction of justice carry a maximum penalty of 20 years, The count charging Pinckney with lying to federal investigators carries a maximum penalty of five years behind bars.
Dime Doe was "the joy of anyone's life," her cousin Barbara Kolberg told local media at the time. She was remembered by her friends and family on social media as having a "bright personality," and as being someone who "showed love" and who was "the best to be around."
She was the second trans woman of color killed in South Carolina in two weeks. Denali Berries Stuckey, 29, was found lying by the side of a road in North Charleston on July 20.
