On April 17, during a court hearing, a man accused of murdering two transgender women in Charlotte rejected a plea deal offer given to him, setting the stage for a full jury trial.
Joel Brewer, the man in question, was accused of killing two transgender women in 2021. Jaida Peterson, the first victim, was shot and killed, her body later found in a west Charlotte hotel in April 2021. Remy Fennell, the second victim, was found dead a few days later at the Sleep Hotel in University City. Brewer was also connected to her death.
Several major charges have been filed, including robbery with a dangerous weapon, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and the two counts of murder of both victims. Both had been identified as sex workers, according to police reports.
At the hearing in Mecklenburg County, prosecutors offered Brewer a plea bargain, which in exchange for pleading guilty to the two counts of murder along with the additional charges, he would have received a prison sentence between 25 to 31 years. Brewer rejected the offer, pleading not guilty to all charges.
From there, Brewer will head to trial where a full jury awaits him. With the plea being turned down, prosecutors say they’ll now go for the maximum sentence if convicted: life in prison with no parole.
A few of Charlotte’s LGBTQ+ organizations following the case have spoken to local news outlets about the ramifications they see coming out of the trial, and what it means for the larger queer community.
Rell Lowery, Charlotte Black Pride’s transgender liaison, told WCNC that the trial represents more than just the normal legal proceedings. The case will also have a say on the visibility, value, and justice for the victims along with the community.
“They’re all our brothers and sisters. What happens to one of us happens to all of us,” said Lowery. “There are hundreds of trans women that are murdered, trans males that are murdered, and the majority [are] black trans women. But the amount of cases that are actually brought to trial and individuals actually facing sentencing is so much smaller. It’s a question of: is he going to be held accountable, so that their families can get justice?”
Sarah Mikhail, who leads Time Out Youth, an LGBTQ community center that offers a safe space and services for young people, told WSOC-TV news that they remembered the week both trans women were killed. Having kept up with the case’s progress, Brewer’s denial of the plea deal deeply concerns Mikhail, not just for the possibility that Brewer gets acquitted, but for the part of the United States the trial is taking place in.
“What does it mean in the South right now to go to a jury when we don’t know what people think about trans women?” Mikhail said. “It makes me feel like there is an emboldenment out there that says, ‘I might be able to get away with this,’ because we don’t value trans women as women.”
To date, these aren’t the only crimes that Brewer stands accused and convicted of. In Union County, to the east of Charlotte, Brewer was charged with a third homicide during that same year.
That February, Joshua Tramaine Allen was found dead, with his body being disposed of in a wooded area near Wingate. Investigators linked Brewer to the case as the last person that Allen had been seen with the prior night and no evidence that Allen was ever seen alive after his encounter with Brewer, according to deputies at the time. The medical examiner found multiple gun wounds in Allen’s body, determining that to be the cause of death. Brewer stands charged with first-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a felon and concealment of death in that separate case.
Then, there’s Brewer’s role in a 2011 robbery that led to the death of an accompliceIn that case, police said that Brewer, along with three other suspects, had planned on robbing an alleged drug dealer when one accomplice was shot during the attack. Dying from the gunshots, his body was found dumped out on the shoulder of a road in Monroe, similar to what happened in Allen’s case, along with similar territory.
The collective story Brewer’s serial crime record tells is not a good one, and a full jury will have to determine his fate going forward at the upcoming trial. That said, to Lowery and Mikhail’s points, it will be the upcoming trial verdict that will decide how safe, or more dangerous, the Charlotte Metro region and its residents will be after the fact.