A young trans woman who was charged with the November 2023 murder of a john who demanded his money back after discovering she was trans was acquitted of second-degree murder, but convicted of voluntary manslaughter on Monday.

21-year-old Leniyah Butler was convicted Monday in federal court in San Francisco, 16 months after her arrest for the shooting death of 32-year-old Hamza Walupupu. According to a release from the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, the two-week trial was presided over by U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, and the jury found Butler guilty of killing Walupupu, but not with malice aforethought — which is a requirement for second-degree murder.

The case was tried in federal court because the killing took place on federal land.

Butler has, from the start, claimed self-defense in the case, saying she feared for her safety after Walupupu learned she was trans and demanded his money back after she performed oral sex on him. But subsequent jailhouse phone calls that were recorded by authorities suggested that she felt little remorse, and Walupupu "got what he deserved."

The shooting happened after Walupupu picked up Butler in an area known as "the Blade," at Post and Polk streets in the Tenderloin, and drove her to the parking lots near Crissy Field — where, Butler told police, she felt "out of her element." After asking for "more" following oral sex, Butler reportedly told Walupupu she was trans, and he became upset and demanded his money back, telling her to get out of his car.

Butler refused to get out of the car, and Walupupu was shot in the eye in the ensuing schuffle, or as he attempted to exit his own car, as police initially said. His body was found in the parking lot, and Butler stole his car, drove it to the Bayview, and abandoned it there after attempting to wipe it down and dispose of the murder weapon.

As the Bay Area Reporter reports, Butler's defense attorney David Rizk argued that she legitimately feared for her life, and said in his closing argument that the federal government does not listen to people like her.

"He isolated her for a reason,” Rizk said of the remote location Walupupu chose, according to the BAR. “He took her there to get his sex for free, to sexually assault her, to put her in fear. He never intended to pay. He was never going to pay, and the trouble began when she would not go along with it."

Attorneys argued at trial also that Walupupu perhaps knew ahead of time that Butler was trans, and that "the Blade" in the Tenderloin is known for trans and gender non-conforming sex workers, unlike the similar, longtime sex-worker hangout in the Mission District, which has shifted from Capp to Shotwell Street and back again over the years.

The trial also featured testimony from other sex workers who had encountered Walupupu, and there was some suggestion that he suffered from schizophrenia, and had spoken of being under a voodoo spell, per the BAR.

Federal prosecutors issued a statement after the verdict saying, "We extend our sincere condolences to the victim’s family, whose son and brother was taken from them prematurely, and hope today’s verdict brings some measure of justice. We commend the swift actions of the FBI agents, who promptly and thoroughly investigated this case from the moment the victim’s body was found in the Presidio."

Ironically, Butler was convicted on Transgender Day of Visibility, and she will be sentenced on June 27, during LGBTQ Pride Week.

She faces a sentence of up to 15 years, and a fine of $250,000.

Previously: Suspect In Crissy Field Murder Heard In Jailhouse Phonecall Saying Victim 'Deserved' to Be Killed

Photo via Google Street View