A Navy seaman in training has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for the stabbing death of a transgender woman.
Local news media report 20-year-old Dwanya Hickerson pleaded guilty on Thursday to the murder of Dee Whigham in a St. Martin hotel room on July 23. Hickerson will also have to serve 15 years for a robbery charge.
Autopsy results show the 25-year-old Whigham was stabbed 119 times. Many of the wounds were to the victim's face and her throat and slashed three times.
WLOX-TV reports that Jackson County Sheriff's Deputy Leo Allen said surveillance video shows Hickerson and Whigham walking into a Best Western Hotel room together around 8:30 p.m. He says Hickerson was seen leaving the room alone about 23 minutes later, his shirt around his neck.