Uncover - S3 "The Village" E9 Bonus: The Justice Project

Episode Date: April 2, 2019

The Village, Bonus Episode - Trans women of colour in Detroit are confronting an epidemic of violence with the support of The Justice Project, a task force that investigates and prosecutes serious crimes against LGBTQ people. After aspiring designer and dancer Kelly Stough is murdered in Detroit, they take on her case. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/uncover/uncover-season-3-the-villiage-transcripts-listen-1.5128216

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I'm Justin Ling. This is a special episode of Uncover the Village. Last summer, I met up with trans activist Nikki Ward in the park next to the 519 Community Center in Toronto. She took me over to a brick wall at the far end of the park to show me something. What we have in front of us is the symbol for transgender, which is internationally recognized. There are flags and so forth, but this symbol is something that we know to be ours. And it is female, male, and mind your own business.

And so this is a large circle in white chalk. And then on to the side is some names written in different chalk. This is just the first name some names written in different chalk. This is just the first name of someone who was passed recently. So we set this up here and it's very modest. What happens is this, the symbol here is restored on a regular basis. We have to clean it up a little bit. It's just chalk. Oh, it's just chalk? Just chalk. Which is a testament to how much it's respected by those people on the street. There's no tags here, there's no graffiti, it's just chalk. As you can see, faded names here that fade with the natural passing of time.

This may be the only place where this name appears, because when a trans person dies, the body is reclaimed by their family of origin, and their name then evaporates, so they die twice. First individually, and then they're buried with the wrong name on the gravestone. So this may be the only place. Now you can't see it, but I can see all of the other names on here that were written on here. Trans people in Toronto and elsewhere are at particular risk for marginalization. And this memorial is just one way to remember those who have died.

And you'll see that people kind of bury little objects in here, little tokens and what have you. It's very, it's very, I think it's impossible not to be moved by that. At least I hope that's true. And oftentimes when they're doing a memorial in the park en masse and they have candles, people will come to one side and put a candle or two here. Throughout this series, we've seen how discrimination can disrupt and even end lives.

The victims who went missing from the village were often men of color, immigrants, or refugees. They were people who may have not been comfortable going to police if they felt unsafe. The chances of being criminalized as you report a crime against you, whether you're a recent immigrant, whether you have different status, whether you're unemployed, maybe you have an history of drugs, whatever, the chances of being you being charged with a crime when you report a crime to somebody else are actually quite high. So of, there's distrust. And then when we're talking about issues around physical assault and sexual assault, not only is there some stigma associated with that, regardless if you're a trans woman or a gay man or however you identify, there are also sensitivities around that.

While we were in Michigan investigating the murder of Mark Levkovsky, we heard about an initiative called the Justice Project. The aim of the project is to ensure that everybody in the community feels respected by both the police and the courts. A victim's advocate works with witnesses and survivors while a special prosecutor tries cases of serious crimes against LGBTQ people. Our producer Aaron Burns went back to Detroit to learn more about what impact the Justice

Project is having in the community, specifically when it comes to the lives of trans women of color. Put your right hand, state your full name. Jessica Chantagne Williams. Do you swear upon me to tell the complete truth? I do. You can put your right hand. State your full name. Jessica Chantagne Williams. Please swear upon the teller, complete truth. I do. You can put your hands down. You're a witness. Thank you. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. How did you know Kelly? She was my daughter, my child. How old was Kelly at the time of her death? 36. Kelly was born Tristan, is that correct? Correct. And she identified as Kelly? Yes. And she identified as Kelly?

Yes. Did she identify as Kelly for most of her life? No. But at the time of her death, your daughter was named Kelly Stowe. Yes. Did you go to the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office? Yes. For what purpose?

To identify my child. Can you identify your daughter? That's Kelly Stowe's mother. She's in court describing how she had to identify her daughter's body. The court respected Kelly's true name and gender identity. And someone was arrested for her murder. This might not have happened a few years ago. Trans women of color are demanding justice for their community. And finally, they're being heard. Kelly's case is being handled by the

team at the Justice Project. They can't speak to the media about an ongoing case, so the first person you'll hear from is Liliana Angel Reyes, the director of a drop-in center for LGBTQ youth in Detroit. All of these women are at the front lines of an epidemic of violence against trans women of color. This is their story, in their words. Detroit is one of my most favorite places in the world. Detroit has one of the strongest Mexican town or Latino populations and one of the largest populations of Arab Americans outside of the Middle East.

And so Detroit really is a hub for all kinds of culture and beauty and resiliency where you don't have to strip who you are. So there are neighborhoods where you can be who you are, talk in your language and never leave that neighborhood if you so choose. For many people though, Detroit is a really rough place to live. The economy took a turn, so did the resources, and then you started seeing people leave the communities if they were able to. For the LGBT community, it's even harder. So my name is Liliana Angel Reyes. I am currently the director of Second Story's drop-in at Ruth Ellis Center as well as the executive director of Trans Sisters of Color Project. For many black and brown LGBT people, specifically people

who transition, well we come out really young and so sometimes we come out with no support and families kick us out or beat us or hurt us or even kill us. And so because of that we come out and there's nothing to do. You can't you can't go get a job. You don't want to go to the foster care system. But because of that people start 13, 14, I was 17 when I transitioned and started doing sex work right on the stroll, right a mile away. I didn't go there to do sex work. There's a lot of drug use. And so some girls overdose.

Some girls freeze to death on the stroll because they are homeless. It happens so easy and so quick that you're sometimes caught up in a system that you don't really realize you're a part of until it's really difficult to leave. In the early 2000s, a lot of girls were murdered by their dates and pushed out the car and nothing happened. And so for a trans woman of color like myself, we've lost lots of friends, family, sisters

to the streets. And there's no justice that usually happens. When one of us was murdered, nothing happened. No one did anything. It was our fault. We did something wrong. And Detroit has a really rough history with LGBT people. And so Detroit can be the most beautiful place, but it can also be the most scariest place. So Jaleesa is my sister uh in this work in this life you really have to find people who

who not only just embrace who you are but who are you and so Jalisa and we connected because she's Hispanic and I was inspired that there was another trans woman that was Latina like myself because there's not many here in Detroit that do the advocacy work that we do it just felt like And I was inspired that there was another trans woman that was Latina like myself, because there's not many here in Detroit, that do the advocacy work that we do. It just felt like home. We were able to talk Spanish together, which I can't do here. And we find solace in being around each other and talking about our hopes and our dreams and our struggles and our trauma. And Jalisa has given me a friend

that I don't think this show ever understand what she's given me. Like she's given me a safety net, a foundation that allows me to know that I'm not the only one doing this work. Jalisa also does a different type of work than I do. She's much more in the trenches. When something happens,

she's the first person that they call. And I don't know that I could do the work that she does. Six Mile in Woodward, freezing cold. If you didn't have anywhere to live and you were homeless, it would be horrible conditions. I couldn't even smoke a cigarette, had to throw it on the floor because my hand feels like it's gonna freeze.

So this laundromat is where some of the girls with the cars park. If it was warmer or summertime, the johns sometimes pool in here. Cars go up and down all hours of the night. A lot of abandoned buildings. There's drug usage, drug dealers. It's just not a safe area. And that's where a lot of the trans women stand and do survival sex work.

And they walk from here as far down to 8 Mile. The next street over is where one of the trans girls was shot. But it's really, really unfortunate because even in these brutal conditions, like, people will be out here. And the johns will pull over and go really slow, like the original car that passed us went really, really slow to see what we're doing. It's no different than that. I just feel like this was way too dangerous. In the beginning, we would stand out here with the girls that I would consider my friends and that I knew and would write down license plate numbers, which is how I started advocating

just because so many girls, either they were getting robbed or assaulted and murdered. See how he was parked there? That's exactly how it is. If you guys like leave me alone for like three minutes, I'm not even joking, like 20 cars will pull up and they'll say exactly what he said, which is, you need a ride? Nope. I got money. I kept walking. You need a ride? And then honestly, I turned because I didn't want him to pull up on me. So, my name is Jaleesa Abad. I work at the Fair Michigan Justice Project that specifically works on addressing LGBT and trans crimes. A lot of people don't know my background or story, but I didn't have a horrific childhood being trans.

I actually had really good parents. I was brought up in a good household, had an education, have a college degree. I speak three languages. I moved to this area. I Googled gay-friendly places when I got here. I originally did not know that it was like the concrete jungle. I had enough income to like last me for a year where I was good. After that, I started trying to find employment here. It just

did not happen. So when I moved out here at first, I would see LGBT individuals and trans individuals like myself. In Florida, there really isn't a space or place where trans women congregate. So when I would first see them, I was excited because I felt like there was a community like myself. I didn't realize that they were all outside because we had to do survival sex work. I've been here eight years. I've lost two friends. Bills don't stop, obviously. So I don't feel like I've ever properly been able to grieve. And because I know what it was before I was where I'm at now,

I have this phobia of one day me waking up and all this not being real, like it being a dream, because sometimes it's really surreal to me how far I've come. So that's another reason why I work as hard as I do. Liliana works hard to help her community too. And she always has. She was looking out for people well before she worked as an official advocate. So I remember when I used to be on the sex stroll and something would happen. You didn't call the police.

You just figured it out or you just dealt with it. Back when I used to do it, back in the early 2000s, we would have boys come with us that would supervise us and watch us just to make sure things were okay. So we created our own policing system. And so we rely on each other. We talk to each other about what dates we don't trust, what dates we do trust. We grew up hating the police because they would come and be like, have sex with us,

otherwise we're going to take you to jail. So we would have sex with them. So the police were really rough to us back in the day when we first started out. One of our sisters, her name was Shelly, she helped the police find a drug dealer. They caught him, put him in jail. They gave her a police officer or had a police officer work with her and he told that she told on him. They decapitated her and lit her on fire. The LGBT movement has gained some rights,

but not for trans people. When gay marriage became legal that year, I think it was 2015, 2016, that year and two or three years after that were one of the highest rates of trans people, specifically trans women of color, being murdered in the United States. So it is very scary that I could be living my life

and someone could decide that who I am, never talking to me, never interacting with me, just who I am is enough to take me out of this world. And then the fear that if that happens, nothing could happen to them. I'm Alana McGuire. I am the president of the board of the Fair Michigan Foundation. We got together initially, so our founder, Dana Nessel, who's now actually, full disclosure, my wife. In 2015, she was part of a team of attorneys who brought suit that went all the way up to the Supreme Court. You may know it as Obergefell v. Hodges.

Our case was part of those four cases that went up to the Supreme Court and actually legalized same-sex marriage in the United States. People could start getting married. And what we were noticing though, because Michigan specifically does not have protections in place for discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, you could get married on a Saturday, go into work, tell your employer that you want to add your spouse to your health insurance plan, for example. That employer could find out you're gay and fire you. And there's absolutely nothing. You have no legal recourse. So who feels the most sort of impact of discrimination? I think you really have to look to the trans community, and particularly trans women of color.

Our project shows that for the 26 cases that we have prosecuted since our founding in 2016, half of those victims are trans in terms of the violent nature of our assault of crimes. That, I think the trans community bears the brunt of that more so than any other group. That, I think, I think the trans community bears the brunt of that more so than any other group. So we established Fair Michigan initially as a ballot initiative, and we were hoping to amend the Michigan Constitution to include sexual orientation, gender identification, and actually, interestingly, gender.

Michigan is not alone either in that form of allowing discrimination. There are many states that do. There are no federal statutes dictating that kind of thing either. 2018 was a pretty banner year for my household. My wife decided to run for attorney general. On election night, Dana gave a pretty powerful speech. Of course, more than anything, my beautiful wife, for sticking with me through all of this.

Thank you, Alana, I love you. And for all of you out there that can't handle the fact that I'm about to become the first openly gay person to hold statewide office... And then she paused and grabbed me and gave me a very public kiss in front of everyone. I was so obnoxious. I just had to do it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I don't know what mood struck her, but I think it was sort of a reaction to sort of the months and months of people taking shots at her. I can say that it was fun to be a part of something like that. And I think it was kind of just a very subtle, like, yeah, I see you. She was the first statewide elected official who was LGBT. I think that that particular representation matters tremendously to the LGBT community because the Attorney General is the state's top law enforcement official. Our signature project is the Fair Michigan Justice Project. I think we have some of the most professional, dedicated, incredible people working for our

organization. Jalisa, she is in the community each and every day. She came to us actually the very first day that we announced the Justice Project. She contacted Dana Nessel and said, what can I do to help? I originally saw the news talking about the Justice Project and Dana Nessel. And around that same time, I lost two trans sisters that were murdered in this area. I reached out to Dana Nessel, called her and asked her if she had two minutes, basically explained to her my story, what it is that trans women have to go through. And I just honestly pleaded my case and told her the truth. I just need someone to believe

in me and give me an opportunity. And she did. And so I am the Director of Advocacy for Trans Individuals at Fair Michigan. So a lot of the trans women that get beat up, assaulted, have been raped and robbed, have came and knocked on this door here and all the other doors of the apartments that I've had. And on every instance that I call Jamie, because we know that crime doesn't have a time. So whether it's one in the morning, midnight, five in the morning, she has answered. She has made sure that she calls police departments

and lets them know that I am on the way with the victims so that they treat us with respect and they're culturally competent. And she just honestly, she goes above and beyond for my community. And she doesn't necessarily have to, and not everybody does. and she's one of the best allies that I think we have here. My name is Jamie Powell Horowitz. I'm the special prosecutor for the Fair Michigan Justice Project. This project got started because back in 2014 and 15, we had an unprecedented number of trans women of color who were killed in the city, and the cases weren't being closed. The project is a private-public partnership between Fair Michigan, which is a nonprofit. It's an LGBTQ advocacy organization and the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. Wayne County Prosecutor's Office assigns to us cases that involve biased crimes against the

communities when people are targeted because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. We don't have a hate crime law in Michigan to address those cases. Yeah. We are doing the cases because we know they exist and we're treating them like hate crime cases. You can't change the law unless you can collect the data

to show that there's an actual problem. When I began working with her, especially in my community, it was really hard for me to bring her around. It was already hard for my community to come forward and report crimes, so they didn't feel really comfortable having to reach out to a white cisgender woman that they felt wouldn't understand their struggle. We're lucky in this community that we had Jalisa, somebody who could kind of vouch for us and to go into the community and say, hey, Jalisa always tells me, all right, I tell them there's this new prosecutor. And then I tell them she's a lady, she's cisgender, and then I throw in that she's white. And the whole room is like, oh, no, no, no. So it takes a little bit of time to build

that trust and to keep showing up and say, hey, you know what I mean? Jamie Powell has always been really supportive. She's always been open to learning, which I love about her. She always asks a lot of questions. We've had conversations where sometimes she'll not see something from a perspective and I have to be like, well, no, and I explain it to her from a trans experience. And she's absolutely amazing. Jaleesa is a force of nature.

Everyone who meets her instantaneously loves her, no matter what walk of life they come from. The cold cases involving the trans community, the first step for the Fair Michigan Justice Project was to go back and start looking at those cases. Not just to look at those cases, but to see what we could change in the future. Because obviously there's a reason when you have so many people in one small community losing their lives in a very short period of time and not being able to solve those. There's a breakdown. Something's gone wrong.

There was a case in Wayne County. There's also one in Oakland where there were trans women of color who had cooperated in an investigation and were killed. And obviously this is a small community. Everyone talks to each other. And the message that that sends is, you know, if you cooperate with the police, you could potentially lose your life. Keep in mind that if community as a whole sees police and people in authority not respecting you and not treating you with dignity, what is going to make the community feel like they should treat you any better? Honestly.

When the girls would get assaulted or beat up, they would be criminalized for prostitution, but not address the fact that they were just robbed or beat up or raped. Or again, they would be misgendered and not treated with respect to where they're not going to go to the police station and report. If you have a warrant and you know that they're not going to take you serious, now you're going to go to jail and you're still in the same position

that you were in before you were out there, which is trying to eat and survive. With the LGBTQ community, they have stopped going to the police because they have learned that when they call, no one is going to come. And if they do come, they're not going to take it seriously or respect them. We broke trust with them. We can't just sit here and wait for them to report. It is up to our community to keep going back to that community to make sure that they know this system can work for them. This community is treated with excessive brutality.

These women are shot while they're in cars. They are dumped. They are left for dead. I think we see a lot of Johns that would literally rather kill these women than be caught with them. I always get upset when I see cases in the paper and the comments are always, oh well he was probably surprised that she was transgender. I have never seen that.

Never. These are people who, because of the stigmatization associated with being trans, these men also see these women as less than human. And they, because of stigmatization, also hate themselves for their preference. So they're likely to act on that violence and they're likely to act on that hatred. And when they do so, they often describe what they have done in ways that not just dehumanize the victim, but it's almost as if the Johns that we see feel that it's okay to exact violence against this community after they patronize them. There's just no remorse for it. If you go to rob someone or you go to rape someone and then you start using slurs and you up the ante with the violence, most certainly that is a hate crime.

In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is Available now wherever you get your podcasts. There were two individuals who decided that they were going to specifically look for a trans woman to rob. They pull up to her on the corner. One person gets out of the car with a.22 rifle. Co-defendant, Mr. Williams, takes her purse.

She actually drops it on the ground. He takes it, goes to get back in the car. She goes to run away. It's over. And Charles Brown guns her down as she's running away. The two defendants were fleeing from the police, and there was a police chase. And we always get the body cams now, and you could hear on the body cams

one of the officers, as he's chasing one of the defendants, they shot a transgender person. You can't do that anymore. Oh, no, they have a special unit over here. You could hear on the body cams one of the officers, as he's chasing one of the defendants, they shot a transgender person. You can't do that anymore. Oh, no. They have a special unit. Oh, no. You can't do that anymore.

She was paralyzed for almost eight months, but by the time we got to trial, she was able to walk into court with a cane and testify and identify her shooter. Now, here's the effect of treating these cases like hate crimes. The police are taking them more seriously. They love the fact that they have an investigator, a prosecutor at their disposal, we'll answer our phones all hours of the night. They're gonna be dealing with one person

from start to finish. When we first started, I routinely had to go to Jaleesa, please, please bring this person to to Julissa, please, please bring this person to talk to me. Please tell this person we're going to fight really hard for them. It took a lot of convincing the victims and the witnesses in that community that we really were there for them and we were going to take the violence against the community seriously. Now I show up and they talk to me. They know we're going to take it seriously, that we're getting the results and that we're going to make sure that they get through the process as easily as they can.

So tomorrow I can say that we will be working a case. I can't discuss the case, but I will be there in the role as a victim advocate. So in our cases, many times we prepare our victims and we prepare our witnesses and we practice with them. How are you going to handle this situation when it happens? I myself, as the victim advocate, will make sure that I'm there with you the whole time in court, talking to you, walking you through it.

Sometimes the defense's job is to throw you off your square or rattle you. So I try to tell our victims that not everybody's gonna be respectful, unfortunately, but when they ask you a question, look at me, even if the question is disrespectful and it bothers you. Act like me and you are having a conversation so that it just helps them get through it better.

We're gonna be going to hold a preliminary examination for the murder of a trans woman of color. Albert Weathers is charged with murdering Kelly Stowe. This is a probable cause hearing. It will be held in front of Judge Michael Wagner. We're going to put on evidence to show that there is probable cause that this defendant murdered this victim. I also go to make sure that my community members that are there are respected, that they get into the courtroom with no issue. I need people in authority and people there just to see that they have an advocate just like any other person would have representation or an advocate. We're working on some cases now where it's kind of a first that the entire community is now circling around their victims and their witnesses to help provide them support when they come into the justice system.

CS, you're not going to know that we exist if we don't ever come out. You're not going to know the disparities that we go through if we don't ever talk about them. We're not going to know any statistical numbers if we're not ever writing them down or seeing representation. So I want my community always to be there and be present.

I want people to know we are here and we're gonna rally together and this isn't okay and acceptable anymore. The big story hate crime questions. A pastor now charged in the murder of a transgender woman. She has aunts, her grandmother, she has a lot of people who love her. She was loved. And, you know, people cared. So, you know, she just wasn't nobody.

The mother of Kelly Stowe is devastated trying to come to grips with her murder. The case is being handled by a special prosecutor with the Fair Michigan Justice Project, which assists police and prosecutors in solving serious crimes against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender persons. Nobody from the Justice Project can speak about anyone connected to an ongoing case, but Liliana knew Kelly. They were friends. What I do know about Kelly is I've known her for almost a decade. So we were in the ballroom scene. It is that resilient network of LGBT people, specifically

black and brown, that started in New York. And it created this family for LGBT people. And I knew her for years and years, and she was one of the sweetest people ever. And actually, her and I were in the same house. We were in the House of Ebony. And so the House of Ebony is one of the largest houses in the ballroom scene, it's one of the oldest houses. And it is a space where they honor the girls. And they call the femme queens, which are trans women,

they call them Ebony Pearls. And there's so much safety that goes with them. The men make sure that they are protecting the girls so you can walk as a model, but you're not really a model. And so within there, there are houses or families that you become a part of. And whenever you go to a ball, you'll hear ebony chanted because there's so many members. And it's like a big family reunion girls are put on a platform and it's really beautiful in the way that they humble themselves to the girls and so any girl in the ebony will always feel like she's safe in a ball

and it's a house where it's really a family and it's really lots of love that comes from it. So she walked face because she was beautiful and she could do makeup like nobody's business and she would always want to do the girls' makeup so that they could feel the most beautiful that they could. Kelly was probably one of the most funniest people that you would ever meet. She was hilarious. And so we spent a lot of times having fun and laughing.

She believed in sticking up for the girls. She believed in the rights of trans women of color. They need to be informed about the lifestyle. They need to be informed about trans life. In 2015, the Detroit police held a meeting in Palmer Park to address violence against LGBTQ people. Some individual officers had been working respectfully with the communities,

but the relationship with police in general was rough. We're asking for your sympathy and your concern. We're not asking for you to punish us and to throw us in jail. You know what I'm saying? Because that's not going to do anything. Kelly attended the meeting to share her thoughts on how the police were interacting with her community. This is Kelly. So we're not asking for you to, you know, to keep throwing the fucking gaffer at us. We're asking for your help, your concern. These are

cries for help and attention and love. And you people that said serve and protect on the side of your vehicles are not doing that. Two girls have gotten killed over the last two months, and girls are still out making a way for themselves. It's sad. No, I don't want to be out here. Yes, I'm scared. But what am I to do?

You know these girls are out here. You know they ain't going nowhere. So why not build a relationship with them so that they can feel comfortable coming to you and coming to you and talking to you and saying, this man tried to hurt me, without you laughing at her or saying, well, that's what the fuck you get. Unless you're just in the middle of the street, you know, dead, bleeding or something like that, you can flag down the police and they'll just ride right past you like you never flagged them down.

And she was one of the sweetest people in the world. She would literally give you the clothes off her back. I don't know if people say that about people, but she really would. She would literally go, well, here's my coat. It's negative five. Here's my coat because you need it. Sometimes in a community when there's a lot of trauma and oppression, sometimes it's easier to turn on the people much like you. So there's a lot of trauma and oppression, sometimes it's easier to turn on the people much like you.

So there's a lot of infighting. Kelly wasn't about that. She was about making sure that girls felt beautiful and safe. So when she passed away, the thought of that not being in the community anymore, because it's rough to be in this community without having those types of spirits or presence. When she left, it felt like there was a piece of a lot of us that were taken. Hey! I thought you were in the other parking lot! Hey.

I thought you were in the other parking lot. I missed you. Sorry. Morning. How you doing? All right? Okay. All right. How are you doing? Good. Ready.

Albert Weathers, a former pastor, has been charged with the murder of Kelly Stowe. This is the preliminary examination. The prosecution will try to prove that they have probable cause that a crime was committed and that the defendant committed the crime. The defense has entered a plea of not guilty and will present their arguments when and if the case goes to trial. Albert Weathers has said that he shot Kelly accidentally and in self-defense when she tried to rob him. These are some of the prosecution's witnesses.

Did you call 911? Yes, I did. Later, shortly thereafter, I stayed late on the ground, they held their hand up and there was a cell phone in their hand. And the driver got out from the driver's side, walked over to the person on the ground, slashed the phone out their hand, and walked back in, got into the car.

Detroit 911, what's the address of the emergency? The eyewitness says he saw someone throw a person out of a car. As she was lying there, that person took her cell phone from her hand, got back in the car, and drove away. Jamie Powell Horowitz calls a forensic pathologist to the stand. How long does it take to die from a wound like this? From just the lungs being hit, I would estimate it would take minutes to maybe more than an hour. Doctor, in your opinion, as a medical examiner, do you think it would be possible for her life to have been saved if she'd had immediate medical attention? It was possible, I would say.

Did you determine the cause and manner of death? Yes. What was the cause of death in this case? The cause was gunshot wound to the chest. was gunshot wound to the chest. The prosecution has one last witness for the first day of this examination. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon.

Ms. Butz, could you please state your name for the record? Tavares Betts. What is your name that you use every day? Kyra. Your legal name is Tavares? Yes. You're a transgender woman? Yes. Your Your legal name is Tavares? Yes. You're a transgender woman? Yes.

Your family and friends call you Kyra? Yes. Ms. Butts, I'm going to take you back to December 7th of 2018. Did you know a person by the name of Kelly Stowe? Yes, I did. How did you know Kelly? That was like a very close friend of mine. You could say like a best friend, a sister.

You hung out together frequently? Yes. Can you please tell me what you know about the area of Six Mile and Woodward and Six Mile and John R.? Yes, Six Mile and Woodward, that's the area mainly where you find a lot of LGBTQ, transgender women, and also a lot of, in my words, sex workers. Did you do survival sex work? Yes, I did. Sex work is work. Survival sex is selling sex because you don't have any other options. And where would Kelly typically work? Along with me, six miles.

Objection asked. This is the defense attorney. On the date of December 7, 2018, were you at the location on McNichols and Brush? No. So you have no knowledge or any understanding of what occurred that early morning hours, is that correct? Not at the time, no. All right. Well, let me back up here to see.

I didn't quite get your name. It's Tavares Butts, is that correct? Her name is Kyra. Objection. The witness's name is Kyra. This is the judge. Well, she said she goes by Kyra, but when she took the stand, she said, she raised her right hand and said her name was Tavares Butts. What's your real name? This is the judge. What's your real name?

Excuse me, well... The defense attorney asks Kyra what her real name is. He argues that he wants to hear her legal name, because among other things, many people use aliases. Jamie Powell Horowitz seems to see it differently. She wants to make sure that Kyra isn't misgendered in court. That is extremely insensitive and inappropriate. No, no. No it's not. When she walked up and she said,

raise your right hand and state your full name, she says Kyra Rizwa. Mr. Kripps is using this as an intimidation tactic. He knows that this witness goes by Kyra. At this point he is seeking to embarrass and humiliate her. Did you ever see Kelly Stowe doing survival sex work? Yes. Frequently? Yes. Do you know a person who is Albert Weathers?

Yes. Do you see him in the courtroom today? Yes, I do did for the record could you please indicate where he's seated and what he's wearing he has on the green wayne county outfit let the record reflect the witnesses identified the defendant in this case albert weathers miss butz you stopped taking dates with mr weathers yes his attitude is like very like aggressive and kind of intimidating. Like if you're one of those easily intimidating people and I just don't like altercation. He's too aggressive for me.

The trans women who work together in this area, do you discuss your dons? Yes, some. Not in full detail, but we do like, oh I know him or oh or oh, I see him, or girl, don't get in that car. Yes. Did you and Kelly interact regarding Mr. Weathers? Yes. Thank you. Nothing further. So Kyra, she used to be Ebony too. Kyra is also my sister that we've known 12 years, I think. And I really commend, I mean like Jamie is my heart, but I really commend the judge because there's been

lots of cases where they will not say she. They'll look at a girl and say he and use their name even when they tell them not to. And so I'm really happy that in this space they upheld an environment to the extent that they could of safety because Kyra has been Kyra for 10, 12 years. And so for people that may think, well, just change your name, it's much, much difficult. It's really expensive. It's also very intimidating. You have to go in front of a judge, in front of dozens of people and be like, I'm transgender. I would like to change my name.

So it can be really scary. And so I'm glad that Kyra was uplifted as Kyra because that's who she is. We want her to know that her voice is being carried by all of us and she'll never be alone through any of this. And so we're all very, very close. We're very tight knit in Detroit. And so we wanted to make sure that Kyra didn't feel alone. So every single time there is a hearing or it goes to court, we want to be there as many people as possible. And so it really is just about, one, to support Kyra, two, to let the family know that their daughter was loved and will always be loved, and three, to let the courts know

and the murderer and his family know that this is not acceptable and that you didn't just kill a person, you killed our family. I am not sure that you would have seen Kyra on the stand without Fair Michigan, specifically because both Jamie and Jalissa were the people that supported Kyra in this. Kyra did not want to get on the stand in the first place, let me say that. So I think because of the fear and because she would be out there and because she knew they were going to rein her in and do everything they could to weaken her, it really was Jaleesa that really empowered Kyra to do it.

And then I think because they stepped up and the community stepped up, that's what made Kyra do that. But without Fair Michigan, you would not have seen Kyra on that stand. Definitely not. And you wouldn't have seen us there either, honestly. Now this year is different because this year the community is seeing that the system is working for them and now they are becoming more vocal and supporting each other when they come forward. So there's safety in numbers, right? So if you heard

a trans woman of color now they know the police are coming, the prosecutor is coming, and these defendants are going to know now that the community is coming. So when you have support like that it deters further victimizing these victims and witnesses by torturing them, firebombing their house, making them frightened, shooting at them. When you have the community circling around them, it makes it a lot harder for people to intimidate them. So in three years, we have a 100% conviction rate and we have five. The fact that we have a 100% conviction rate speaks in itself on what it's been doing for the community. The fact that they feel comfortable enough to come forward now and report and have conversations with Jamie before I literally would have to be there.

And now they're comfortable enough in me saying, well, no, if you come here or you go to this police station and ask for this sergeant or this detective, you're going to be fine and you're going to be treated with respect. The fact that when I started in 2016, I was reaching out to Dana Nessel in order to have the position that I'm in. Now she's the attorney general and we have a new president for Fair Michigan. So it's just amazing. And I think that as a whole, it's just amazing what we've been able to accomplish. I think with any demographic or community, it always gets better. I feel like a long time ago, we were having that conversation with gay individuals, and there wasn't even an LGBT. Back then, it was just homosexuals and gay and lesbians,

and they weren't even accepted. So my hope is that a year from now, two years from now, we won't even be having this such topic conversation on transgender. It'll just be normal and like we'll understand it's just another layer or part of our community. So as much as I'm overwhelmed and tired, I cannot say no. Like If my phone rings, I'm helping you. The jury trial of Albert Weathers is scheduled for August 2019. As of May 2019, Michigan still doesn't have official protections or hate crime laws that apply to LGBTQ people. The Justice Project has tried 24 cases in the last three years. They still have a 100% conviction rate. Thank you to Jaleesa Abad, Jamie Powell Horowitz,

Alana McGuire, Liliana Angel Reyes, and everyone we spoke with at the Justice Project and the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. Thank you to associate producer Sarah Clayton, and also to Ryan Felton, who let us use the tape of his 2015 interview with Kelly Stowe. We're asking for your sympathy and your concern. We're not asking for you to punish us and to throw us in jail, because that's not going to do anything. We're not asking for you to keep throwing the fucking gaffer at us. We're asking for your help, your concern. These are cries for help and attention and love.

To see our video documentary on the Justice Project, visit our website at cbc.ca slash uncover. This episode was produced by Aaron Burns and recorded by Sarah Clayton. Cecil Fernandez and Mitch Stewart are our audio producers. Additional production on this episode by David McDougall. Tanya Springer is the senior producer of CBC Podcasts, and our executive producer is Arif Noorani. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.