The Murder of Rae'Lynn Thomas (SOLVED)

Rae'Lynn Thomas was a twenty-eight-year old transgender woman who was murdered on August 10, 2016 in Columbus, Ohio by James Allen Byrd, the long-time boyfriend of Rae'Lynn's mother. She was described as "the entertainer of the family"; being the life of every party.

On August 10, 2016, for unknown reasons, James shot Rae'Lynn multiple times then continued by beating her to death, all in front of her mother. He was arrested but was proven incompetent to stand trial, so he was sentenced by Judge Guy Reece of Franklin County in Ohio, to serve one year in a psychiatric hospital, until a treatment believed to be able to fix him, will take effect. Since I haven't been able to find recent reports about the case from this or last year, I believe the treatment(s) did not work; so Byrd is most likely still in the mental hospital.

Despite the psychiatric ward sentencing, the Thomas family believes that James is pretending to be mentally unstable; claiming he "knew exactly what he was doing". The family is hoping a hate crime charge can be filed; however hate crime protections for LGBT people in Ohio does not exist.