Charges have been filed against two Compton men accused of a hate crime in the robbery and assault of three transgender women in Hollywood on Aug. 17, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.
Carlton, 29, and Davion, 22, face possible prison time if convicted. Both are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
According to police, Carlton approached the women and offered to buy items for them at a local store. Police say he then refused to pay, the women left, and he “approached one of the victims with a metal bar and demanded her shoes and bracelet.” The woman was able to escape, but police say a friend was then attacked with a bottle.
Prosecutors say Davion helped in the assault and robbed one of the women. Reports say he allegedly used a rideshare scooter as a weapon while Carlton allegedly used a steel rod.
Afterward, one of the victims, Jaslene, said in an Instagram Live video that she was hit in the head because she is transgender and that bystanders crowded around, recorded her and laughed instead of calling for help. She said people told her she deserved it.
Los Angeles Police Department deputy chief Michel Moore criticized the onlookers who recorded the attack rather than helping. He condemned the assault and said, “these types of instances of hate and violence have no place in Los Angeles.”
The district attorney’s office says Carlton was charged with grand theft from the person, second degree robbery, criminal threats, attempted second degree robbery, assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, and battery with serious bodily injury. Davion was charged with grand theft and assault with a deadly weapon. The office says Carlton faces up to 13 years and four months in prison, and Davion faces up to 8 years and four months.
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A third man, Willie, was previously arrested in connection with the incident, but the district attorney’s office declined to move forward with an extortion charge because of a lack of evidence.
Terra Russell-Slavin of the Los Angeles LGBT Center praised the charges. “I think we’re really encouraged to see that the prosecutors moved forward with both filing charges and ensuring the charges had a hate crime enhancement,” she said, adding that hate crimes are an attack on the whole community.
