The federal jury trial of a transgender woman who pleaded not guilty on charges of second-degree murder for allegedly killing a man at San Francisco's Crissy Field in November 2023 began March 17 with opening statements, in which her defense attorney argued she'd acted in self defense.
"It was either him or me," Leniyah Butler was quoted as saying by her defense attorney Shaffy Moeel.
Her attorney said Butler wants to be referred to as Leniyah, which is listed on the court documents along with Leion Butler, which is not her deadname. Those documents were changed March 17. Previous court records included Butler's deadname, which the Bay Area Reporter isn't publishing.
Moeel conceded that it was true that Butler, 21, shot Hamza Walupupu, 32, just before dawn November 12, 2023 after he had picked her up in a Hyundai Accent in the Tenderloin district with the intent of paying her for sex. However, Moeel painted a picture of Butler raised as a victim of child sex trafficking who – due to the fact Walupupu drove her to a dark Presidio parking lot – had a reasonable belief Walupupu would harm or rape her once she revealed she is transgender and he demanded a refund.
"She [Butler] believed she had to [kill Walupupu] and by the end of this case, you're going to see her belief was completely reasonable," Moeel said.
The intersection of Post and Polk streets where all agree Walupupu had picked up Butler is called the blade, Moeel said. There's another blade in the Mission district, but the Tenderloin intersection is known as a place where transgender and gender-nonconforming sex workers can be found.
"The vast majority of sex between people and people who hire them happens within blocks of the blade, so as they are driving farther and farther away, Leniyah is getting more nervous," Moeel said. "Her red flags are going off. ... It's five in the morning. There's nobody out. There are no lights, unlike the blade. ... This would be terrifying for almost everybody."
After Butler performed oral sex on Walupupu, he wanted to have penetrative sex with Butler, Moeel claimed. It was at this point Butler revealed she was trans, which she said made Walupupu fly into a rage.
"I'm gonna fuck you, you're gonna earn that money," Moeel claimed he'd said.
"She was afraid he was going to hurt her," Moeel said. "She was afraid he was going to rape her. ... We as a defense don't have to prove self-defense, but we're going to."
Moeel said that Butler was "coerced into sex trafficking" at a young age. Butler was also abused by family members and neighbors, Moeel said.
The trial is being held in the courtroom of Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, at the federal courthouse at 450 Golden Gate Avenue, near San Francisco City Hall.
While homicide cases typically are adjudicated in county courts, the fact that the killing took place on federal land gives the United States government original jurisdiction on this matter. Among those representing the government is Assistant U.S. Attorney George Hageman, whose statement contained quotes from Butler's interview with law enforcement that he characterized as Butler's confession.
"I know it was a murder bitch," Hageman quoted Butler as saying. "I know. I know. I know. Like you know? It's a murder."
That conversation happened after Butler's arrest, while she was in custody during a jailhouse phone call. Walupupu had, Hageman said, driven far from the Tenderloin in the wee hours of that morning because he needed to get $100 out of an ATM to pay Butler, which they'd agreed upon in advance.
"She didn't want to get out of the car. It was 'cold as fuck,' in her words," Hageman said. "She didn't want to walk home."
Hageman told the jury that Butler didn't call police after the killing and allegedly drove the Hyundai to Hunters Point and attempted to conceal evidence by cleaning the blood inside the car.
Moeel said, on the other hand, that prosecutors want the jury to believe parts of Butler's story from her interview with law enforcement, but not other parts.
"This is a part of society most people don't like to think about," she said. "But these are real people and there are real consequences."
Illston issued an order that witnesses who would be called – and which associated evidence would be presented – had to be disclosed by one side to the other at least 24 hours in advance. The first witness was Judith Shultz, who found Walupupu's body.
"I realized he was not moving at all," she said, testifying that she ran into Walupupu's body during a routine Sunday morning visit to Crissy Field at 6:30 a.m. November 12. "There was a lot of blood, particularly under his head and near his legs."
Members of Walupupu's family, who were present in court in the afternoon, declined to speak to the B.A.R. Members of Butler's family were present in court earlier in the day; they'd previously stated to the B.A.R. they would not comment on the facts of the case.
Other witnesses
A number of other witnesses in the process of responding to Walupupu's killing were also called. These included Tara McBryde, an officer with the U.S. Park Police San Francisco field office, who responded to the crime scene; U.S. Park Police investigator Adam Conn, who collected evidence at the scene; FBI Special Agent Meredith Stanger; and Erin Casey, an FBI visual information specialist who created a 3-D graphic of the crime scene.
Others were Mark Mullaney of the San Francisco Fire Department; Mark Powning, an investigator with the San Francisco medical examiner's office; Dr. Jordan Taylor, who conducted the autopsy; Gerald Andrew Smith of the San Francisco Police Department crime laboratory; David Wallingford, a detective with the U.S. Park Police San Francisco; SFPD Officer Peter Van Zandt; and SFPD Sergeant Matthew Hackard, who's assigned to the investigations bureau.
Taylor characterized Walupupu's death as a homicide; Butler attorney David W. Rizk made her clarify that was a medical definition and not an indication of guilt for second-degree murder. Taylor also testified that Walupupu's blood alcohol content at the time of his death was .155, almost twice the legal limit for driving in California.
Walupupu died solely as a result of being shot, Taylor testified, but was alive for a time after he was shot with a single gunshot near his left eye.
"At some point after Mr. Walupupu was shot, he was able to take several breaths," Taylor said, which could be deduced by the fact blood was in his lungs.
Smith, a firearms analyst, said his job is to determine if ammunition components came from a certain source or not.
"The examination of a bullet is extremely straightforward," he said. "Knowing it came from a body, I disinfect it, put it in a bleach solution, and then when that's done I start the examination. ... I weigh it; I mean the diameter; I take notes on any characteristics or features a bullet might have."
He testified that a 38-caliber class bullet was used.
Wallingford testified that, as supervisor of criminal investigations for the park police, he was called to the Crissy Field East Beach parking lot, the site where Walupupu's body was discovered, that morning.
"I observed that a crime scene perimeter had been set up. I observed officers standing by at the crime scene ... and I observed other personnel documenting the crime scene," he said.
When asked about Walupupu's body, "I noticed a large amount of blood – bright red in color in his facial area and other areas of his body."
Bright red blood is "blood that is a recent wound ... that has been exposed to the air," he said.
Wallingford also said that he requested photos from the license plate reading cameras in the Presidio. At 6:12 a.m. that morning, a photo taken by the south-facing camera at Presidio Boulevard at Pacific Avenue shows the Hyundai driving away from the area.
"I'm aware it was located," he said, "in the 100 block of Kiska Road in the Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco."
While Wallingford was on the stand, the government played a surveillance video from Kiska Road that showed the driver exiting the car and inspecting various things. There was also a Jeep in the video that showed light discoloration, he said.
Wallingford handed the case off to the FBI because his agency didn't have the resources to take on a case of this magnitude.
The car was found November 15, 2023, he testified. On that date, Van Zandt responded to the area regarding an abandoned vehicle, he testified.
"We conducted a computer query on the vehicle, which showed the registered owner's name and address," he said. When that person couldn't be contacted and the vehicle was towed, Van Zandt saw blood in the car, he said, at which point he called the homicide detail.
The ownership of the Jeep was in the process of being transferred to a name associated with Butler's family, Hackard said.
Correction, 3/18/25: The original version of this report stated that Butler's alleged remarks characterizing the killing of Walupupu as murder were said during a law enforcement interview. Rather, the alleged remarks were made in a phone call, prosecutors claim.
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