Nikki Kuhnhausen.Photo: Facebook
The killer of atransgenderteen whose 2019 murder inspired her mother to successfully push for a change in Washington state law has been found guilty of the crime.
Nikki Kuhnhausen, who aspired to be a makeup artist forNicki Minajand compete onAmerica’s Next Top Model,“knew exactly who she wanted to be and who she was,” Taylor Watts, a longtime friend of Nikki’s, told PEOPLE last year. “She inspired a lot of people to actually feel free to come out as who they want to be.”
But on June 6, 2019, after prosecutors say Nikki, 17, arranged a date with a man on Snapchat, she disappeared. Her remains were found six months later in a remote wooded area outside Vancouver, Wash.
A probable cause statement alleged that suspect David Bogdanov “became enraged” after discovering he had engaged in sexual contact with a biological male whom he believed to be female and strangled Nikki to death.
On Friday, Bogdanov, 27, was found guilty of second-degree murder, as well as a second charge of malicious harassment under the state’s hate-crime statute, and now faces 11 to 19 1/2 years in prison when he is sentenced next month, reportsThe Columbian.
“We were all holding hands while we were awaiting the verdict to be read and that was really powerful,” Linden Walls, a member of theJustice for Nikkitask force, said after the verdict, according to the newspaper. “It felt like we were all together … and the sense of relief that came that we got justice for Nikki, that we were able to push this and the jury could see it and did the right thing. That felt really good.”
According to his testimony, Bogdanov learned Nikki was transgender after having sexual contact with her in the back of his car. When he pushed her away and told her to get out, he claimed she reached for a loaded gun near the vehicle’s driver’s seat, reports the outlet.
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He testified that it would be “humiliating” if his family learned he’d had sex with someone who was transgender, according to KATU.
During the search for Nikki, Woods joined with LGBTQ communities to attend vigils and hand out flyers drawing attention to violence affecting transgender people, aligning herself with other activists and parents of transgender children.
A Washington state lawmaker, Rep. Sharon Wylie, took note and revived legislation to ban the so-called “gay panic defense,” in which accused assailants blame the victims for crimes committed against them.
Using Nikki’s example and Woods' pain to put a face on the issue, Wylie won her colleagues' support, and last year, Gov. Jay Inslee signed the Nikki Kuhnhausen Act, making Washington the 10th state to enact such a ban.
“I don’t want anyone to think that it’s okay to murder someone because of their gender,” Woods, who stood at the governor’s side when the bill was signed, told PEOPLE last year.
On its Facebook page, the group Justice for Nikki posted: “The long buildup to this trial, and the defense’s attempts to somehow paint Nikki, who was a 17-year-old girl, as being ‘responsible’ for the defendant’s violent actions, were excruciating for us, and particularly for Nikki’s mother Lisa. There’s no excuse for what happened to Nikki. This hate crime wounded our community.”
Bogdanov will be sentenced Sept. 9.
source: people.com
