Two men linked to a paintball gun attack on a transgender woman in Puerto Rico pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit a hate crime. The case sparked an outcry on the island after the victim was found dead just hours after video of the attack was recorded.
The murder of woman Alexa Negrón Luciano in February 2020 remains unsolved and no one has been charged in her death, although it has brought renewed attention to violence against gay and transgender people in Puerto Rico. The FBI is asking the public for information to help with the investigation.
On Monday, Jordany Rafael Laboy-Garcia and Christian Yamaurie Rivera-Otero pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in San Juan, PR, to conspiracy to commit a hate crime and obstruction of justice in connection with the attack, Justice Department officials said.
On February 23, 2020, someone posted photos on social media showing 29-year-old homeless Ms. Negrón being questioned by police after using the women’s restroom at a McDonald’s in Toa Baja, PR, according to the indictment.
The next day, at about 12:29 a.m., Mr. Laboy-Garcia and Mr. Rivera-Otero were in a vehicle when they saw Ms. Negrón standing under a tent on the side of the road in Toa Baja, a town about 20 miles west of San Juan the Ministry of Justice said in a press release. A third man, Anthony Steven Lobos-Ruiz, was also in the car.
Mr. Lobos-Ruiz recorded with an iPhone himself making “derogatory and threatening comments” toward Ms. Negrón from the car, including shouting “la loca, la loca” or “the crazy woman, the crazy woman,” they said Prosecutor said.
The men left and returned within 30 minutes with a paintball gun and recorded a video of Mr. Laboy-Garcia firing paintballs at Ms. Negrón, prosecutors said.
According to the Justice Department, Mr. Lobos-Ruiz shared the videos with others. A few hours later, he and Mr. Laboy-Garcia sent each other text messages and agreed to delete the videos to conceal their involvement in the attack.
Ms. Negrón was found murdered on the side of the road in Toa Baja that same day.
Ms. Negrón’s murder attracted widespread attention in Puerto Rico and beyond. Days after her death, Puerto Rican pop superstar Bad Bunny appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” wearing a white T-shirt that read in Spanish: “They killed Alexa, not a man in a skirt.”
W. Stephen Muldrow, the U.S. attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, said in a statement that the Justice Department will “continue to vigorously defend the right of all people, regardless of their gender identity, to be free from hate violence.” ”
“Attacking an innocent victim who, for no reason other than her gender identity, poses no threat to the defendants is reprehensible behavior that will not be tolerated,” Mr. Muldrow said.
In November, Mr. Lobos-Ruiz was sentenced to 33 months in prison after pleading guilty to aiding others in the attempted attack on Ms. Negrón because she was transgender. He had admitted to obtaining the paintball gun to injure Ms. Negrón and recording the attack on his iPhone and sharing the video with other people.
Mr. Lobos-Ruiz was represented by the Federal Public Defender’s Office, which does not comment on cases. At the sentencing hearing, Lobos-Ruiz said he was sorry for making fun of Ms. Negrón, El Nuevo Día reported. “I am ashamed of myself and of who I was in my past,” Mr. Lobos-Ruiz said in Spanish.
A sentencing hearing for Mr. Laboy-Garcia and Mr. Rivera-Otero is not scheduled.
Lawyers for the two men did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ rights advocacy group, 44 transgender or gender non-conforming people were killed in the United States in 2020, and six of them, including Ms. Negrón, were killed in Puerto Rico. At least 34 transgender or gender non-conforming people were killed in the United States last year, the vast majority of them Black, the Human Rights Campaign said in a report released in November.