The suspect arrested for the killing of a transgender University of Washington student in a student housing complex’s laundry room has been charged with first-degree murder. Notably, the suspect has not been charged with a hate crime.
Christopher Michael Leahy, 31, turned himself in to authorities in Bellevue, Washington days after the killing took place at Nordheim Court, a privately-managed student housing complex. The victim, transgender 19-year-old Michael “Juniper” Blessing, was found stabbed to death inside the complex’s laundry room on May 10.
Leahy has been hit with a deadly weapon enhancement on the murder charge. He remains in jail on $10 million bail. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said that at the current point in the investigation, “there is not evidence to show the crime was motivated by hate.” The sentencing range for first-degree murder with a deadly weapon enhancement ranges between 22 years and around 29 years.
A court document from Senior Deput Prosecuting Attorney Donald Raz said that Leahy had “inflicted over 40 stab wounds to a 19 year old University of Washington student who was innocently doing their laundry,” and that during the same evening, “the defendant stalked another UW student across a multi-building complex eventually following this second student into the same building and same room where he would visciously murder Juniper Blessing.”
If Obama had a son…