A teenager in Detroit has been convicted of killing two gay men and a trans woman.
A jury in Wayne County found Devon Kareem Robinson guilty of the triple homicide, which took place last May. Prosecutors believe the sexuality and gender identity of the victims a motivating factor in the killings.
Robinson fired multiple shots at his victims: 21-year-old Alunte Davis, and 20-year-olds Timothy Blancher and Paris Cameron, a trans woman.
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The killings took place at around 5am on May 25th at a home on Devonshire on Detroit’s east side. It followed a house party earlier in the night. Around 15 people attended the party and Robinson also injured two others present.
Robinson was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, assault with intent to murder and felony firearm in the killings.
#DevonRobinson GUILTY of the first-degree murders of Alunte Davis, Paris Cameron and Timothy Blancher. Blancher and Davis were gay men, Cameron, a transgender woman. Automatic LWOP. pic.twitter.com/5FNhlfYx6P
— Law & Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) March 17, 2020
A survivor testified in November at a preliminary examination that Robinson had sprayed the living room of the house with so many bullets that blood from the victims had seeped through the walls.
He said that the victims had met Robinson at a nearby gas station, with Cameron inviting him back to the party. There, Robinson admits he engaged in sexual acts with Cameron. Other witnesses say he also allowed others to perform oral sex on him.
He later left the party. He then returned an hour later, wearing a mask and armed with a gun, and started shooting.
Special prosecutor Jaimie Powell Horowitz asserted that Robinson went on the rampage to get rid of anyone who had witnessed him engaged with sexual activity with gay men and a trans woman. In closing arguments, Horowitz said the crime was not just about hate, but “self-hate.”
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Robinson’s attorney had said his client was not guilty, claiming he had no “reason in the world” to kill anyone and that the murderer had worn a mask, so no-one could positively identify Robinson as the killer.
After the killings, CCTV footage captured Robinson again at the gas station, dry heaving and spitting. He fled his home the next morning and was picked up by police following a tip-off.
He will be sentenced on April 13 and faces life in prison without parole.
Ricanthony
Lock this trash up forever and throw away the key.
Matthewnow
He gives trash a bad name.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
I know it’s a tired old cliche about jail rape…but am hoping that filthy noxious puddle of puke has it’s ass ripped open every night it for the rest of it’s vile life ..
Chrisk
I can’t imagine the level of self hate this creature has.
This is why I support the death penalty. I just don’t understand why this monster should be housed and fed.
Donston
Tons of self-hate doesn’t alone wouldn’t elicit a killing spree. Self-hate and internalized homophobia can push someone over the edge if there’s already a lot of confusions/fluidity and mental illness already there. You’d also be surprised how easy it is for some to kill “queers”. If you don’t respect someone as a human being it can be easy to do terrible sh*t to them. But this seems more driven by sociology than anything else. He wanted to make sure that he was “exposed”. And I hate to go there, but toxic masculinity, male homophobia, gay shaming, lack of understanding sexuality or the orientation spectrum- these things are a bit more common in the Black/Latina “community”. That certainly doesn’t help.
one more thing
What is the point of killing people? Why not just off yourself if you are so unhappy!
TheMarc
Exactly!! But people like this deem themselves more valuable than their victims. They dehumanize them in their mind. A secret to be erased and nothing more. They somehow believe that they can kill someone with no consequences then cry and rage when they receive the death penalty or life imprisonment. And it’s everyone else’s fault but theirs.
TheMarc
This is a primary reason why I will NEVER sleep with closet case/DL guys. Let their defenders say what they will; but this isn’t the 50s or even the 90s. If you’re a young, closeted gay man or a man who likes to sleep with men but identifies as straight; I have no time for you. I could care less if the statistics were that I have a one in a 100,000 chance of being murdered by some self-hating, closet case; I refuse to take the risk.
Donston
We don’t really know how much of this was driven by self-hate or if he was a legit closet case or not. One night hooking up with a bunch of randoms who he later attempted to kill only tells us that he desperately didn’t want to deal with the sociological repercussions. We don’t know his sexual/relationship history based off this. And we don’t know where he is in the romantic, sexual, affection, emotional, relationship contentment spectrum. I do agree that the “straight”/closeted guy obsession thing is toxic and sometimes dangerous. But hell, there’s a lot of internalized homophobia, paranoia and mental health issues running through a good percentage of the “queer community”, no matter how out someone is or what identities they embrace. And there’s always risks with random hook-ups.
Bob LaBlah
There are two sides to every story. The testimony was videoed and is available youtube. It seems to me that based on the testimony of two people who were present there Ms. Paris was not exactly what one would call a saint and it leaves me believing he was more or less promised something that Ms. Paris decided not to give him and he came back for revenge. You have to see the youtube video but trust me, it seems to be a mess that was going on inside that house prior to the shooting. It sounds as though it was a “house” that he stumbled across and regretted what he did. I actually feel more sorry for him than the little queens he got even with.
Dez
It’s so horrible what self-hatred can cause someone to do. I hope his parents (if he even had any) are proud of the son they raised to hate himself and others to this extreme. It’s probably safe to assume they taught him to hate gay people and in turn himself. Great parenting 101.