8 years for killing transgender woman
Crown prosecutor stresses death resulted from an argument and was ‘not a hate crime’
An argument over the cost of a sexual encounter led to the death of a New Westminster woman two years ago, court heard Thursday during a sentencing hearing.
Charles Jameson (Jamie) Neel, 22, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in June and was sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster to eight years in prison.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Neel contacted 26-year-old January Marie Lapuz, a transgender woman who worked in the sex trade, by text on Sept. 29, 2012, to arrange an exchange of sex for money.
Neel did not know Lapuz, but knew she was transgender.
Lapuz gave Neel her address and he left the Vancouver home he shared with his brother and twin sister, arriving at Lapuz’s apartment in New Westminster around 9:45 p.m.
An argument ensued about the price Lapuz would be paid for a sexual encounter.
Lapuz, who was five inches taller than Neel and twice as heavy, grabbed a pair of scissors and cut Neel on the palm. There was a struggle and Neel used a knife to stab Lapuz multiple times in the face, neck, arms and torso.
According to the submissions of Crown prosecutor Rusty Antonuk, Neel was defending himself, but used more force than necessary under the circumstances.
Three days later, Neel took a bus to Calgary. On Oct. 4, 2012, he got on a flight to Thailand, where he stayed for two months. When Neel returned to Canada on Dec. 5, 2012, he was arrested at the airport. He later admitted to an undercover officer who was placed in his jail cell that he had killed someone in New Westminster.
Antonuk stressed in his submissions Lapuz’s death resulted from an argument and she was not killed because she was transgender. “This is not a hate crime,” he said. Betty Lapuz, who adopted January Lapuz in the Philippines when she was two months old, described her daughter in a victim-impact statement as someone who had a good heart and soul, made everyone laugh and loved to help others.
“Her absence is really breaking my heart,” she wrote. “… she was everything I had.”
Before sentencing, Neel — a short, slight young man who wore glasses, black dress pants and a grey dress shirt buttoned at the top — addressed the court.
“I would like to say I’m sorry for all the trouble and pain I’ve caused,” he said. “I’m trying to turn my life around. I express my dearest condolences to the family.”
According to a pre-sentence report and letter from Neel’s father, Neel, who is aboriginal, had many challenges growing up. David Neel called his son “a textbook example” of what happens to the children of aboriginal people who are forced to attend residential schools.
Crown and defence made a joint submission for an eight-year prison sentence, minus 33 months of credit for time Neel has already spent behind bars. That leaves five years, three months in his sentence.
Justice Frits Verhoeven said he could see no good reason to depart from the joint submission and imposed the eight-year term.