PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Philadelphia man has been found guilty of third-degree murder in the killing of transgender woman Tracy "Mia" Green two years ago.
Abdullah Ibn El-Amin Jaamia was acquitted of first-degree murder, while also found guilty of possession of an instrument in a crime.
“Taking someone’s life, that’s only God’s job. No one is supposed to take someone else’s life,” said Green’s mother Pam Smith, who called her child beloved.
“Always made me laugh,” Smith added. “Family-oriented.”
Green, 29, was shot four times inside the defendant’s car in West Philadelphia in September 2020. El-Amin Jaamia admitted to killing Green, while his attorney argued that this was a case of self-defense.
The defendant admitted to picking Green up for oral sex but said that the two got into an argument over money, that Green was suffering from addiction, and that she reached for his gun.
Green was shot in the back, side and back of the neck, which prosecutors argued was first-degree murder.
“It relieves me that they did not seem to consider the self-defense claim to be a credible one,” said prosecutor Helen Park, who showed the jury El-Amin Jaamia’s taped confession.
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“When you have a transgender victim and all efforts are being made to vilify this person, you always worry that the jury is going to buy into that and it appears that they did not. That is a huge comfort to me.”
Smith said she forgave El-Amin Jaamia.
“I guess as long as he has some time to think about what he has done, because first of all, God forgives him, I forgive him and he needs to forgive himself,” Smith said.
Family members for both sides had to watch the trial by Zoom from floors above the courtroom.
El-Amin Jaamia is set to be sentenced in November and faces decades in prison.