2 Men Charged With 2019 Hate Crime Murder of SC Black Trans Woman

• Two South Carolina men face hate crime and obstruction of justice charges in the 2019 killing of Dime Doe.
• Doe, a Black transgender woman, is among the 61 unresolved cases of trans homicide over the last 5 years.
• Federal investigators alleged that the men carried out the plot because of Doe’s “actual and perceived gender identity.”

Two South Carolina men were indicted on federal hate crime and obstruction of justice charges on Wednesday for the 2019 killing of a Black transgender woman.

Pebbles LaDime “Dime” Doe, a transgender woman, was killed on August 4, 2019, federal prosecutors said in the indictment announcement. They charged Daqua Ritter with a hate crime and charged both Ritter and his associate Xavier Pinckney with obstruction of justice, alleging that the men killed Doe because of her “actual and perceived gender identity,” and then misled cops.

Doe’s murder was among 61 unresolved cases out of 175 transgender deaths in the US over the past five years, according to an Insider investigation and database capturing data that is not tracked by the FBI, “Deaths in the family.” 

“Dime always been a friendly person to everyone,” Barbara Kolberg, her cousin, told Insider in November 2022. “The joy of anyone’s life.”

According to court documents, Ritter shot Doe in the head in 2019, killing her. Investigators alleged that over the days and months after the murder, Ritter knowingly provided misleading accounts of his interactions with Doe to South Carolina law enforcement. 

Ritter then lied to police about his communications with Pinckney, who lived a mile away from where Doe’s body was discovered, prosecutors said. Pinckney told police that he did not have a phone number, though he had called and texted Doe on the day of her death, according to the indictment. 

Pinckney also lied about seeing Ritter during the morning ahead of the murder, prosecutors added.

The hate crime charge against Ritter has a maximum sentence of life in prison, and the obstruction of justice charge against the two men carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment.