ROCKVILLE, Md. — The man charged with killing a transgender woman in Montgomery County last week will not be charged with a hate crime, a judge said Monday.
Zella Ziona, 21, was shot in a service alley between the Montgomery Village Plaza and the Montgomery Village Crossing shopping centers on Thursday evening. A Germantown man, 20-year-old Rico Hector Leblond is charged with murder in connection with her death.
Despite pleas from Ziona’s family for Leblond to be charged with a hate crime, Montgomery County Prosecutor John McCarthy says the time stacked up against Leblond for the first degree murder charge of life plus 20 years is sufficient.
McCarthy says Leblond will not be charged for a previous stabbing where he was initially implicated after the victim could not ID him and blood found on LeBlond did not match the victim.
He’s being held without bond, separate from others given the high-profile nature of the case, McCarthy says.
LeBlond’s trial begins next month.
