SYRACUSE, N.Y., Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A young New York state man was sentenced to 25 years in prison Tuesday for shooting a transvestite in a hate crime.
Dwight DeLee, 20, apologized to Moses Cannon's family, The Syracuse, N.Y., Post-Standard reported. But he also denied killing Cannon.
"I'm no monster," he said. "I'm a young human being."
DeLee was convicted last month of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime. It was the first conviction in New York under a 2000 hate crime law involving the killing of a transgendered person or transvestite.
Cannon, 22, was shot dead as he sat in a car on Nov. 14. His family said he often dressed as a woman and used the name LaTeisha Green.
"He took a very precious life," Cannon's mother, Roxanne Green, said in a brief statement in court, the newspaper said.
An uncle released a family statement later asking for more understanding for the transgendered.
