Trial Opens In Murder Of Transgender Woman
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Opening statements are expected today in the case of a man accused of killing a woman in her apartment last January.
The murder of 45-year-old Krissy Bates was the first homicide in 2011 for the City of Minneapolis. The victim was a transgender woman who previously went by the name Christopher Paul Bates.
Bates was found on Jan. 11 by the caretaker of her apartment building on the 1300 block of Linden Avenue. She had suffered four stab wounds to the torso and neck.
According to the original criminal complaint, a neighbor informed police that Bates had recently begun seeing a man she met online named Arnie Waukazo.
When police caught up with him, Waukazo admitted to getting into an argument with Bates and strangling her with his hands until she lost consciousness.
Court records show when Waukazo made an attempt to move her, he said she jumped. He told police he didn't want her to "come back," so he grabbed a folding knife off a hutch and stabbed her multiple times.
Waukazo does not want a jury trial, so a judge will listen to testimony and make a decision in the case.
