PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia man convicted of murdering a transgender woman and beloved LGBTQ activist two years ago has been sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison.
A judge convicted Troy Bailey, 30, of third-degree murder and gun charges two months ago in the killing of 40-year-old Michelle “Tameka” Washington. Bailey had waived having a jury hear his case.
Bailey shot Washington in the back and head along North 11th Street, near Ontario Street, in the early morning hours of May 19, 2019.
At first, he told detectives it was someone else, but when they found ammunition in his home and a gun in his girlfriend’s home, he gave a formal statement saying they had a fight over a gun.
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Kelly Burkhardt, LGBTQ liaison for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, attended the sentencing hearing on Thursday.
“We can never bring back Michelle, but we can at least show that her death didn’t go in vain, that she is still alive in everyone’s hearts, in the community,” she said.
Earlier this week, another man was held over for charges in the killing of Dominique Rem’mie Fells, a trans woman who was brutally stabbed, dismembered and thrown in a river.
“In our city alone, [in] 2019, 2020 and 2021, we have had at least one — that have been identified — one Black trans woman that has been killed,” Burkhardt noted.
Last year, the Human Rights Campaign recorded 44 transgender people killed nationwide — the highest since they started tracking the deaths in 2013. The majority are Black trans women.
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