Arrest Made In 2013 Beating Death Of Transgender Woman In Harlem
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Brooklyn man was charged in the 2013 beating death of a transgender woman in Harlem.
James Dixon, 24, was arrested and charged with manslaughter and felony assault. He pleaded not guilty in court Tuesday, 1010 WINS' Kevin Rincon reported.
Islan Nettles, 21, and a friend, another transgender woman, were out early Aug. 17, 2013, at 148th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard when they ran into a group of men, and one punched Nettles in the face, police said.
Dixon allegedly kept punching after Nettles fell to the ground. After the attack, Nettles was hospitalized, slipped into a coma and died five days later.
Police had been investigating whether the attack was a hate crime.
Another suspect, Paris Wilson, was arrested shortly after the attack. But prosecutors dropped misdemeanor assault charges in November 2013 when Dixon went to police and allegedly confessed, Rincon reported.
"I loved my baby – like I said, a handsome man and a beautiful woman," the victim's mother, Delores Nettles, said shortly after her death.
As WCBS 880's Alex Silverman reported, Dixon, who has been arrested almost a dozen times, pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.
Dixon is due back in court on March 19.