MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis man convicted of murdering a transgender woman last fall was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison on Wednesday.
Damarean Bible was found guilty in August of second-degree intentional murder. The sentence he received — 367 months — is the maximum he could have received for the charge, said Hennepin County District Attorney Mary Moriarty.
Savannah Williams was found with a gunshot wound to the head in a south Minneapolis yard last November. Although Bible initially denied involvement in her death, he eventually confessed to fatally shooting her, documents said.
He said he passed her at a bus stop on Lake Street and she offered him sex. The complaint states they walked to the courtyard and when they were done, Bible shot the victim at point blank range because she “made him suspicious.”
“While nothing can change the fact that Savannah’s family will have to live with the pain of her loss for the rest of their lives, we have asked for a lengthy sentence to ensure that Mr. Bible cannot harm anyone else,” Moriarty said.
The Queer Legislative Group spoke out against Williams’ murder at the time, calling it a “senseless killing” that “not only snuffs out a vibrant life, but also serves as a stark reminder of the dangers and discrimination faced by sex workers and trans people, particularly BIPOC trans people and femmes.”
Moriarty’s office said in December that “if the investigation produces sufficient evidence to prove biased motives beyond a reasonable doubt, we will prosecute accordingly.”
But Bible was not charged with bias because, according to Moriarty, her office did not have sufficient evidence to prove his motive for the killing.
“But the fact that we couldn’t charge this as a bias crime doesn’t change the impact this crime has had on the sense of insecurity within our trans community,” she said.
“Whether this is a bias-motivated crime or not, what we do know is that our trans people of color in the state of Minnesota, in the city of Minneapolis, across the country are being pushed to the margins of our society,” said Rep. Leigh Finke. “And when we don’t take care of the people in our care, tragic outcomes happen.”
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, gender-based hate crimes in Minnesota increased each year from 2020-2022. In 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, there were nine such crimes. They accounted for 4.9% of all hate crimes in Minnesota that year, higher than both gender- and disability-based hate crimes. These figures do not include incidents that did not involve violence, threats, or property damage.
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If you or someone you know in the LGBTQ+ community needs support, there are plenty of resources and services available through Front Minnesota, NAMI And Pride of the Twin Cities.
WCCO Staff
