Man Charged in the Beating Death of Transgender Woman

James Dixon, 24, of Brooklyn, NY was arrested today and charged with manslaughter and felony assault in in the 2013 beating death of a transgender woman (pictured, below).

Eighteen months after the fatal beating of a transgendered woman in Harlem, prosecutors have indicted the hate-spewing creep they say killed her. James Dixon, 24, was charged Tuesday with manslaughter and assault for the vicious beating of Islan Nettles on Aug. 17, 2013. Nettles, 21, had been walking with two transgender friends on Eighth Ave. near West 147th St. when a group of men saw them and started catcalling them. The catcalls turned into homophobic slurs and violence when the group of about seven men saw the trio were transgendered, police said. Dixon then “abruptly” punched Nettles in the face, said prosecutor Nicholas Viorst. "The back of Ms. Nettles head hit the pavement and it caused serious brain injury and also left her unconscious," Viorst said. The enraged Dixon continued to pummel the knocked out woman anyway, the prosecutor said. “Her serious injuries caused her death days later,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. A man named Paris Wilson, 20, was initially arrested for the attack and charged with misdemeanor assault. The charges were dropped after another man turned himself in and took responsibility for the crime — but said he was too drunk to remember what happened. The second man, Dixon, bears a “striking resemblance” to Wilson, prosecutors said, and both were dressed similarly on the night of the attack. Wilson was in the group of seven, “but did not participate in the attack in any way,” Viorst said. Dixon turned himself in days after the attack with Wilson’s mother after going to their apartment and acknowledging that he’d been the attacker. He made a “series of statements” to cops at the station house, Viorst said. Investigators then spent more than a year trying to untangle who did what to the fashion company intern. “Our office investigated this matter for a year and a half, judge, before we presented evidence” to a grand jury, Viorst told Justice Robert Stolz. Dixon, a Brooklyn resident who’s been arrested 11 times before, pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was ordered held without bail pending his next court hearing on March 19. His lawyer declined comment. Nettles’ mom, Delores Nettles, told the Daily News she was “ecstatic” when prosecutors called her with the news. “I'm overwhelmed and my God is good,” she said, adding that the long wait for action was “bothersome, troublesome...but at least now I can get a little closure.” [...] Paris Wilson’s lawyer said his client was happy also — and relieved to be cleared in the case. “He's been living with this fear and concern that at any moment he could be charged again for something he knew he did not do,” said the attorney, Xavier Donaldson. “His life was basically on delay.” The DA said his office had “exhaustively investigated this case with the primary objective of making sure that justice is served for Islan Nettles.”

source: NY Daily News