MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 41-year-old man was found guilty of second-degree murder Tuesday in connection with the Jan. 11 death of a transgendered person in Minneapolis, the first homicide of the year.
Arnold Waukazo was arrested Jan. 19 and charged with second-degree murder in the incident.
According to court documents, Minneapolis Police were called to a home on the 1300 block of Linden Avenue at about 3 p.m. on Jan. 11 on a report of a medical emergency. When authorities arrived, the caretaker of the building entered an apartment and found a resident, later identified as 45-year-old Christopher Paul Bates, dead on the floor. More recently, the victim went by the name Krissy Bates.
Authorities at the scene observed that the victim had possible stab wounds. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Bates’s death a homicide the next day.
Waukazo is scheduled to be sentenced in Hennepin County Court on Dec. 27.
