A man has been found guilty of the murder of a transgender teen.
On Friday, David Bogdanov, 27, was convicted of second-degree murder and acting out a hate crime against a transgender teen in Washington back in 2019. In June 2019, Bogdanov met 17-year-old Nikki Kuhnhausen. The two ended up going back to his car, where they participated in sexual activity. NBC News reports that when Bogdanov discovered that Kuhnhausen was trans, he strangled her with a phone charger in the back seat.
After murdering her, Bogdanov took Kuhnhausen’s body and dumped it down the side of Larch Mountain. He then booked a one-way flight to Ukraine and told his friend to “get rid” of the car, according to trial testimony. He went back to the U.S. after about six weeks, the news outlet reports.
Bogdanov claimed he was acting self-defense, saying he only strangled her because he was trying to make sure she couldn’t reach the gun that was close to his driver’s seat.
Linden Walls, a member of the group Justice for Nikki, said they were overwhelmed with joy following the guilty verdict.
“We were all holding hands while we were awaiting the verdict to be read, and that was really powerful,” said Walls. “It felt like we were all together … and the sense of relief that came that we got justice for Nikki, that we were able to push this and the jury could see it and did the right thing.”
Bogdanov is now looking at between 11 to 19 1/2 years in prison.
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