a trans woman was shot in a chicago alley in 2018. eight years later, a jury acquitted the only man ever charged. her mom is still waiting.

Bronzeville, Chicago, seen from the el, for illustration. Photo: Downtowngal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

via the Chicago Tribune and ABC7 Chicago

Dejanay Stanton was 24. She wanted to become a paralegal, her mother has said, and she was known for bringing home trans women who were no longer welcome in their own homes. "She was a beautiful soul," her mother, Valerie Griffin, told the Chicago Tribune. "She always tried to help people."

Stanton was shot in the head around 11 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2018, in an alley in the 4000 block of South King Drive in Bronzeville. On Friday, Oct. 23, a Cook County jury found Tremon Hill, now 25, not guilty of her murder, according to the Tribune and ABC7. Hill was 17 when she died. The jury deliberated for more than four hours and, shortly before reaching a verdict, asked what would happen if it deadlocked. Hill will be released on electronic monitoring because of a separate, pending case, the Tribune reports.

what the jury heard

Prosecutors built their case on cellphone evidence: texts between Hill and Stanton and phone pings that they said put the two together in the alley. They argued Hill had been involved with her and killed her to keep it secret. "It is too many coincidences to be a coincidence," Assistant State's Attorney Jennifer Cooper told jurors. Hill's public defenders said no witness, fingerprint or DNA tied him to the scene. "The phone is the entire case the state has," attorney Robyn Haynes said. "They have no other evidence whatsoever."

The family had no immediate comment on Friday. Earlier in the week, as the trial opened, "It's been a long eight years," Griffin told the Tribune, "a painful eight years." In 2018, she told ABC7 she was convinced being trans may have played a part in her daughter's death.

The Tribune notes the Human Rights Campaign has recorded almost 400 fatal attacks on transgender and gender-nonconforming people since 2013, nearly 60% of them Black trans women. Dejanay is one name in that count. She should be remembered as more than the case: a woman who opened her door.