Release revoked for transgender woman's killer
Credit to Author: Denise Ryan| Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2019 00:55:43 +0000
According to those who knew her, January Lapuz had a huge personality and a sense of humour that was infectious. She had love to give, a giant heart and hopes for her future. And in spite of the challenges of gender transitioning, poverty and racism, she was always positive.
Then, at age 26, Lapuz was stabbed 18 times by a client after an argument over payment for a sexual encounter.
Lapuz’s killer, Charles Jameson (Jamie) Neel, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2014 and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Neel was released on parole last June but had his statutory release revoked last week after violating the conditions of his release.
“What happened to January was a tragedy. She was taken from her community, her friends, her family,” said her friend Alex Sangha.
Neel’s lawyers argued the attack was not a hate crime, but Sangha, a clinical counsellor, doesn’t believe it. Sangha said he was “very, very disturbed” by the short prison sentence and that the killing was not treated as a hate crime.
“She was a transgender person. She was marginalized and alienated and isolated and dealing with suffering in her life. She was involved in survival sex work to pay for her food, her clothing, her phone after she lost her job due to her gender transition,” said Sangha. “She was vulnerable.”
Lesbian, bisexual, transgender and two spirit people encounter discrimination, stigmatization and violence at disproportionately higher rates than their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts, according to the Canada Human Rights Trust.
Lapuz was an active volunteer for SHER Vancouver, a social, cultural, advocacy and peer-support group for LGBTQ South Asians.
For Sangha, “justice for January” will come through remembering who she was as a person, and continuing her legacy of community involvement: “I don’t want the killing to be the main story. Her life was meaningful.”
To that end, Sangha has produced My Name was January, a 25-minute documentary to remember her and explore how her murder affected the community. The documentary has won 13 international awards and been selected at 56 film festivals around the world.
With SHER, Sangha is also involved in the January Marie Lapuz Youth Leadership Award. Nominations are now open for youth between 16 and 30 years old, and who have demonstrated involvement, commitment and leadership in the LGBTQ community.
In its decision to revoke Neel’s statutory release, the parole board wrote that Neel had little regard for the conditions of his release, had been intoxicated, engaged in sexual activity without reporting, that a knife had been found in his room, and that he is considered a flight risk.