Van Nuys man sentenced in stabbing death of transgender woman
A Van Nuys man was sentenced Dec. 1 to 12 years and eight months in prison for killing his partner in their apartment and then setting a fire, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
On Oct. 19, Ezekiel Jamal Dear, who is 27 and black, was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of Yasmin Vash Payne, a 33-year-old transgender black woman.
On Jan. 15, 2015, about 5 a.m., firefighters responded to a call of a fire. They forced entry into an apartment and extinguished a small blaze in a back bedroom. Payne was found with multiple stab wounds on the kitchen floor of the apartment and was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:30 a.m., according to coroner’s records. The next day, Dear turned himself in, accompanied by a pastor, at a South Los Angeles police station.
Contact the Homicide Report. Follow @jeromercampbell and @latimeshomicide on Twitter.
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