Jury delivers guilty verdict in murder of transgender woman in Minneapolis

In the end, the jury didn’t believe any of the explanations Damarean Bible gave for why he fatally shot Savannah Ryan Williams in the head last year in the courtyard of an apartment building near Lake Street in Minneapolis.

The crime was too vicious, the evidence too damning — much of it Bible’s own admission during police interrogation and in text messages and phone calls to family and friends. On Wednesday, he was found guilty of second-degree murder after a seven-day trial.

Jurors returned the verdict within hours of closing arguments. Sentencing is set for Sept. 11.

Williams, a transgender woman whose death spurred activists and legislators to call for increased safety and protection for the trans community, was a pillar of strength and joy for her family. Her sister, Gabrielle Stillday, said she felt that immediately when the verdict was read.

“I said, ‘You didn’t even let your killer get away,’” Stillday said. “‘You’re not even here and you still took care of yourself and everybody around you.’”

When he was arrested, Bible admitted he shot Williams. Surveillance video from the early morning hours of Nov. 29, 2023, showed him walking into the courtyard with her, but only Bible walking out. Williams was found with a single gunshot wound; she had been shot at close range.

Evidence showed Bible moved from the scene of the crime to a Metro Transit bus, then onto the light rail where he exited in downtown Minneapolis and walked to his apartment. When he was arrested, he told police that a gun was at his house. Ballistic evidence matched the weapon to the murder.

Throughout his arrest and trial, Bible argued he acted in self defense, but he never settled on a story. During the initial interrogation, he said Williams reached for his gun as she performed oral sex on him. Later, he said Williams was trying to rob him of his ring. On the final day of witness testimony, Bible took the stand and said, for the first time, that Williams lunged at him with a knife when he shot her.

All of it rang hollow to the jury, and to Williams’ family.

“I just felt like Bible went out of his way to mess with my sister,” Stillday said. “There were times I just wanted to get up and yell at him, but I know that’s not going to help anything.”

The testimony about Williams having a knife was the final attempt by Bible’s attorneys to build a self-defense claim. The knife was found on Bible when he was arrested and kept with his property at the city jail. It was never tested for forensics.

Minneapolis Police Sgt. Sara Metcalf, who arrested Bible and took part in his interrogation, said there was good reason for that.

“The crime scene itself didn’t indicate this was a crime having to do with a knife, at all,” she testified. “This was obviously to us a gun case, assault with a gun. People’s property when they are booked into jail are put into property for safekeeping. There was no reason to think this knife would be evidence.”

Assistant Hennepin County Attorney James Hanneman showed Bible’s interrogation video from the day he was arrested as rebuttal testimony. Bible never mentioned a knife, even though Metcalf asked him if Williams had one. He never said he was being robbed.

“When it came to the alleged threats or suspicious behavior by Savannah, he is unclear and very vague,” Metcalf testified. “He had a chance to say she had a knife, and he didn’t.”

Hanneman was more emphatic in his closing argument to the jury. “That testimony was so implausible and incredible, you know that’s not what happened,” he said.

The evidence showed Williams had likely been smoking drugs when she was shot in the head. A pipe and lighter were on the ground near her body, her hand in her jacket pocket. The medical examiner ruled death was nearly instantaneous.

Stillday said her family is strong and stoic, both she and her mother trying not to betray emotion. Throughout the course of the case, she said, she realized that wasn’t possible.

“In the courtroom, I felt like I could do it all, and I can’t,” Stillday said. “My family needed the justice system, the lawyers, you never know how important a prosecutor, a judge and a jury are, investigators, the cops. I felt like I couldn’t do it without everybody from the state.”

The verdict brought relief and a heavy realization.

“I did have a sad part, because it was just another thing to remind me my sister is actually gone,” Stillday said. “You know when you lose someone their life comes to an end, the trial came to an end, and it just reminded me that everything about my sister is coming to an end.

“Grief is very hard. There are days that I feel like I’m never going to see her again, and there’s days I feel like I’m going to see her again.”

Star Tribune staff writer Kim Hyatt contributed to this report.