By ALEAH WINTER & DANIEL STEIN-SAYLES
A Brooklyn man charged with manslaughter of a 21- year- old transgender female, rejected a plea deal at a court hearing on Thursday.
James Dixon, 21, turned down the 12-year deal though urged repeatedly by Judge Robert Stolz to accept it.
“It is a very difficult and sad case,” said Stolz, as he tried to persuade Dixon to discuss it further with his defense attorney Norman Williams.
Dixon was arrested and charged with first degree manslaughter of Islan Nettles, in March 2015, two years after the attack.
After viewing all the evidence Manhattan DA Cyrus R. Vance Jr. and the grand jury decided not to indict Dixon with a hate crime since there was no evidence of what slurs were uttered during the encounter
Prosecutor Nicholas Viorst argued that there was clear animosity towards Nettles because she was transgender.
Dixon was arrested 18 months after he and a groups of friends fatally attacked Nettles in Harlem after midnight on August 17, 2013. The group of men began catcalling at Nettles and her two transgender friends as they walked by. Soon, the catcalling turned to homophobic slurs and violence ensued.
Nettles was then punched in the face and beaten into a coma. She died a few days later in the hospital.
Viorst stressed that the attack wouldn’t have happened if Nettles wasn’t transgender and although the sentencing for first degree manslaughter ranges from five to 25 years, he was seeking a higher sentence of 17 years.
Hours after the initial attack in 2013, one of the men in the group, Paris Wilson, 20, was charged with misdemeanor assault after being identified by witnesses. The charges were eventually dropped in November 2013.
A few days later, Dixon went to a local precinct and confessed that it was he who attacked Nettles. Dixon was not arrested however, because there was no evidence marking him as the attacker. Only after months of investigation was Dixon finally arrested.
The trial date was set for March 30th.
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