A man, 26-year-old Daqua Lameek Ritter, has been charged after he allegedly shot his transgender lover, addressed in court as Dime Doe, after his girlfriend discovered their affair, per The Telegraph.
Prosecutors say, Ritter, who often depended on 24-year-old Doe, for transportation, enticed her to drive to a secluded area in Allendale, South Carolina. He then allegedly shot her three times to keep their affair from being revealed further.
The Court Proceedings
During the court proceedings that began on Tuesday, it was revealed that Delasia Green, Ritter’s girlfriend, discovered the affair between him and Doe a month before the murder. Reports say once she learned this, she used a homophobic slur against him, which made him “extremely upset,” according to the prosecution.
Ritter, facing charges of
“murder as a hate crime and using a firearm in the commission of a hate crime,”
divided his time between South Carolina for work and New York with his family and girlfriend. Initially, he told Ms. Green that he and Doe were cousins, but as they got closer during his South Carolina visits, Ms. Green started to sense that something was off.
Ms. Green discovered text messages on Ritter’s phone from an unknown number discussing
“getting a room,”
assuming they were from Ms. Doe. When confronted, Ritter dismissed her concerns about his sexuality.
Assistant US attorney Ben Garner informed the federal jury that Ritter killed Ms. Doe to silence her after learning she had disclosed their relationship to a friend.
On the day of Ms. Doe’s death in August 2019, they were stopped by the police for an unknown reason. Two and a half hours later, officials discovered her lifeless in the driver’s seat of her car, parked in a secluded driveway. Witness Kordell Jenkins reportedly saw Ritter dump his bag into a fire and asked Jenkins to get rid of a small gun on the same day.
#Clique, what are your thoughts?
