Augusta has witnessed the murder of three transgender women in less than three years.
There is no evidence the slayings are connected, but there are similarities in some of the deaths, including the use of escort services by two of the victims to meet strangers.
And while arrests have been made in each case, the latest homicide of 26-year-old Keshia Chanel Geter has attracted the attention and criticism of a national human rights group who works to end discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.
“We demand that more be done to protect Black transgender women, so we can live our lives fully without violence, harassment or discrimination,” said Tori Cooper, Human Rights Campaign Director of Community Engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative. “It’s about respect and honor – treating everyone the way you would want to be treated.”
The first death came in March 2020.
Local hairdresser Scott DeVore, who also went by Scottlynn Kelly Devore on Facebook, disappeared on March 12, 2020, wearing a white dress and blond wig. Video taken inside the victim’s home and uploaded automatically to the iCloud helped identify two burglary and murder suspects. The video shows Ronald Harris Jr. and Margaret Harris, both of Wrens, searching the victim’s home. Warrants say the couple stole narcotics from inside. A few weeks later, investigators acted on a tip and found DeVore’s remains in Jefferson County.
Ronald Harris Jr. and Margaret Harris were indicted in January 2021. Ronald Harris Jr. was charged with murder while Margaret Harris was charged with burglary and concealing the death of another.
Antuan Harris, a transgender woman who went by Felycya Harris, was found shot to death Oct. 3, 2020, at Meadowlark Park. She had been there for 13 hours before being discovered by a family gathering for a large get-together. In November 2021, an exhaustive investigation with many twists led to the arrest of suspect Jerrome Miller, 30, of Augusta.
Renqual Geter, who went by the name Keshia Chanel Geter, was found shot to death by a hotel worker July 20 inside Room 327 at the Knights Inn on Boy Scout Road. The next day, authorities arrested 22-year-old Jaquarie Allen of Augusta and charged him with murder in the death of the Easley, S.C., victim. A motive has not been given.
The deaths of Harris and Geter both have ties to sexual hook-ups or their involvement with escort services and personal ads to meet strangers.
In the Harris case, authorities said in 2020 that the pool of potential suspects would be large since the victim was recording sexual encounters with men who reportedly didn’t know she was born a man. One May 2020 incident report was filed by a man who said Harris had demanded $500, or she would release the secret video of their oral sex encounter.
In court, investigators said they got access to the victim’s phone nearly a year after her death. The last call was from a number that turned out to belong to a burner phone traced back to the suspect. A sheriff’s investigator discovered the burner was used to contact several escorts, including another transgender woman who had also been shot but survived. Miller had several different burner phones, officers said.
In the most recent case, Geter had a long list of social media advertisements for escort services that listed her phone number. She was arrested twice in Augusta in 2017 and 2018 while a resident of Columbia, S.C., including a charge for solicitation of prostitution.
A former law enforcement officer forwarded the victim’s recent advertisements for an escort service under the name Keshia Babi. The ads show her having sex with men and posing nude with exposed breasts. The ads say she was “available.”
Geter’s friends say she had undergone surgery about two years ago. She was a pre-op trans woman with breasts.
“She never lied to anyone about being a man,” a friend said. “She never tricked anyone. That is not how she died. Prostitution is not how she got killed.”
National groups have seized on the latest death to show insensitivity to transgender victims, pointing out that some Augusta media outlets continue to refer to Geter by her deadname, Renqual Geter.
Local TV stations have continued to refer to the victim as Renqual Geter and not mentioned that the victim was transgender, even in follow-up articles after the arrest.
“Keshia Chanel Geter lived her truth as a Black transgender woman,” said Cooper. “She should still be alive today to embrace those she loved and continue living a bright and full life. Instead, Keshia was fatally shot and then suffered the indignity of being misgendered by the media.”
Right after the murder, Coroner Mark Bowen identified the victim in a press release as Renqual Geter without mentioning gender. Bowen said he talked to the Geter’s mother and other family members who called him by Renqual and said he was a male.
“If they said it was a female, we would probably go with what they say,” the coroner said. “I just try to respect the family and what they say he is.”
Michelle Jordan, Geter’s mother, told this reporter that her “son” never wanted her to use her new name since she had given birth to him.
In the Harris case, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of Miller with this summary of the death and respect for the victim’s transgender name: “Deputies located the victim, Antaun Harris (also known as Felycya Harris) deceased.”
The Associated Press provides a media guide with recommendations on reporting on transgender issues. It says this about deadnaming: “Use a transgender person’s previous name, or deadname, very rarely and only if required to understand the news or if requested by the person. Deadnaming someone can be akin to using a slur and can cause feelings of gender dysphoria to resurface.”
Still, the issue can be touchy, even for human rights’ groups. After the Human Rights Campaign learned of DeVore’s death in 2020, group officials were unsure whether the victim wanted to be known as a transgender woman.
“It is unclear based upon public information what name and pronouns DeVore would have wanted used in this tragic context,” the group posted online.
Whatever the case, the group points out that Augusta had two of the nation’s 44 transgender fatalities in 2020, making that year as “the most violent year on record since HRC began tracking these crimes in 2013.”
Meanwhile, local residents are planning a vigil at 7:30 p.m. Sunday for Geter. Organizers hope that Geter’s family will attend or speak.
Jordan said other supporters are working on T-shirts with her child’s photo. Below the photo is the phrase: “Transgender Lives Matter.”
Greg Rickabaugh is the Jail Report contributor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at greg.rickabaugh@theaugustapress.com
