DC Rainbow Community PO'd Over Willard Sentence

I wrote about the shooting incident in which 26 year old transwoman Gima Brown was shot in the neck at point blank by Darryl Willard, Jr after she refused his request for oral sex and he tried to rob her.  He was arrested in September and was just sentenced by Judge Ann O'Regan Keary on December 6..

Willard plead guilty in September to one count of aggravated assault while armed – a charge carrying a minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 30 years with a $10,000 fine

However, there was a plea deal struck.  So what did Willard get?   Eight years in prison for it and another five years supervised release when he leaves prison and the DC rainbow community groups are incensed about it.

Jason Terry of the DC Trans Coalition echoed that disappointment over the sentence. 'While we believe people who commit crimes need to be held accountable for their actions, the U.S. Attorney's Office needs to be held accountable to the victims and the D.C. community at large,'' Terry said. ''In this case, the victim was not appropriately consulted, nor at the right time, before the plea agreement was reached.''

''The lax sentencing of Darryl Willard adds credence to the widespread view in D.C. that the life of a trans-person is not equal in value to other lives,'' said GLOV's (Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence) Hassan Naveed in a prepared release. ''It sends a message to perpetrators of LGBT violence that committing crimes against a member of the LGBT community is acceptable in our society.''.