The government continued making its case against the transgender sex worker being tried on second-degree murder charges after she killed a man in San Francisco's Crissy Field in November 2023. Prosecutors discussed an offensive nickname for the defendant, played audio recordings of jailhouse phone conversations involving her, and introduced a DNA expert.
Leniyah Butler, 21, is charged with fatally shooting 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.
Later on, the victim's interest in voodoo, witchcraft, and fears that people followed him who wanted to kill him were discussed.
First, however, FBI Special Agent Casey Smith, who arrested Butler November 20, 2023, was in the hot seat in the afternoon of March 19.
Defense attorney David W. Rizk brought up that law enforcement had taken to calling the defendant "Tootsie Roll."
Butler has pleaded not guilty, and her other defense attorney, Shaffy Moeel, has cited self defense. Moeel told the Bay Area Reporter on the first day of the trial that her client wants to be referred to as Leniyah. She is listed as such on the court documents along with Leion Butler, which is not her deadname. Those documents were changed on March 17. Previous court records included Butler's deadname, which the B.A.R. isn't publishing.
Rizk began the line of questioning by mentioning the agents have been referring to Butler as Leniyah (though some witnesses have used Leion) in court, the name she prefers to go by – though it is neither her legal name nor her deadname – out of professionalism.
Asked Rizk: "You honor her by calling her her preferred name?"
Answered Smith: "I would agree with that."
Asked Rizk: "You would not agree that your FBI calls Leniyah Butler 'Tootsie Roll?'"
Answered Smith: "That's a name we were made aware she goes by."
Rizk lambasted law enforcement for titling the November 20, 2023 operation to arrest Butler "Operation Tootsie Roll."
He also entered into evidence an internal FBI email referring to Butler as "Tootsie," on which Smith was carbon copied.
Asked Rizk: "Do you think that's a respectful name to call Ms. Butler in a case you're investigating?"
Answered Smith: "In the context of this – I understand more than the court does," referring to the fact the name of the operation in which a SWAT team arrested Butler was Operation Tootsie Roll.
Asked Rizk: "So you think that this is professional?"
Smith demurred, but eventually said she did not find it professional on behalf of herself only. Smith also said she corrected the matter in an oral conversation.
"She was booked with an alias of Tootsie Roll," Smith said. "It was a nickname they [law enforcement] were made aware of. ... I don't recall a recent time that it's been used again."
Defense
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.
The U.S. government contends that Walupupu, 32, picked up Butler with the intention of paying her for sex in a Hyundai Accent he was borrowing from a friend he lived with.
Nobody argues that she didn't perform oral sex on him before shooting him, but the defense argues she is not guilty by reason of self-defense.
Rizk also dug in on the investigation, saying the FBI didn't adequately consider whether the victim may have threatened Butler.
Asked Rizk: "Did you ever go out to interview sex workers on the transgender blade?" (The Post and Polk street intersection where transgender women doing sex work can be found.)
Answered Smith: "I did not."
Asked Rizk: "Ever in this case?"
Answered Smith: "I said 'I did not.'"
Rizk argued Walupupu may have had a mental illness, based on information in an FBI memo after agents interviewed the victim's friends and family.
Reading a memo, Rizk said, "Mr. Walupupu told his friends about voodoo, witchcraft, and people following him who wanted to kill him."
Answered Smith: "That's what it says, yes."
Asked Rizk: "What did you do to follow up on this?"
Answered Smith: "Follow up in what way?"
Asked Rizk: "On Mr. Walupupu's mental illness?"
Answered Smith: "We conducted numerous interviews – unfortunately, the victim is deceased, so there's not much more additional info."
Rizk tried to tie what Walupupu's associates allegedly said about his belief in voodoo – and a connection between it and an unidentified condition in his legs that made it impossible for him to continue working – to Butler's description that she was afraid of the way he was acting.
Asked Rizk: "Do you know how many times Ms. Butler told you [in an FBI interview] she felt so uncomfortable with him? ... And having heard from his family and best friends he was going through some kind of mental health crisis, you didn't think she'd know anything about that?"
Answered Smith: "I had not spoken to as many people I'd spoken to, at the time of the interview, as I have now."
Rizk also presented evidence that Walupupu was on aripiprazole, which he characterized as a medication used for the treatment of schizophrenia.
Smith pointed out on re-direct that aripiprazole can be used to treat depression, as well.
"One friend stated it was the victim's lowest point in life and he had just broken up with his girlfriend," Smith testified, saying friends had pointed out Walupupu had turned a corner. "I've had varying reasons or speculations by the friends about what was really going on there."
Tapes cover insanity defense speculation
When Assistant U.S. Attorney George Hagemen was directly examining Smith, the government played several audio tapes of individuals – one of which identified a person only as Amber – telling Butler in recorded jailhouse phone calls that she should plead insanity.
The conversations were recorded in December 2023, a few weeks after Walupupu was killed.
"Take that wig off in court ... and just go fucking crazy," the person on the phone, who was not Butler, said.
"I was just thinking about doing shit to myself," the same person, who may have been named Amber, appeared to suggest Butler say. "The world is changing. Fucking plead insanity. I'm moving my mind, I'm seeing colors. ... The sky is brown and the grass is blue – OK, bitch? I'm not playing. It's a whole thing. Like, I'm telling you it works. It works. I love you all and call me back in a little bit, sister."
On another call, the person on the phone appeared to suggest Butler say "temporary insanity – like you crazy for a moment."
On another call, the person appeared to suggest "you [were] kidnapped. You feeling me? He took you out your element. You were kidnapped."
Butler said, "I don't feel crazy. ... They don't know how I felt. They don't know my life. They aren't living in the streets."
DNA, phone records place Butler, Walupupu at crime scene
The DNA expert, Dr. Kelley Fracchia of the DNA unit of the San Francisco Police Department's forensic services division, explained that it is extremely likely both Butler and Walupupu were at the place where Walupupu's body was discovered in a pool of blood around sunrise on November 12, 2023.
Fracchia testified about a number of particular swabs, including a swab "taken from the ground at the victim's foot," she said.
"In this case the swab was tested, it presumptively tested positive for semen," she testified. "Any time we have an indication semen may be present on a swab or item, it will undergo what is referred to as a differential fraction."
Fracchia testified that normally it's not clear from the testing process itself whether the DNA on a particular object is from saliva, blood, or touch – however, the shape of sperm cells lend themselves to identification under a microscope, and the differential fraction process splits a sample into both sperm and non-sperm components, once an additional chemical is added and a heat treatment applied.
This leads to two products at the end of the extraction procedure.
Fracchia developed DNA profiles for both of those and applied them to DNA reference samples from both Butler and Walupupu, she testified.
In the non-sperm product, "When the reference sample for [Leniyah] Butler was compiled, it was determined to be most consistent with the sample from contributor one, who is estimated to represent 56% of the mixture," Fracchia said. "The likelihood of obtaining these DNA results is at least 1.18 quadrillion times greater if it originated from [Leniyah] Butler and a random, unrelated person than from two random unrelated people. These DNA results offer very strong support for the proposition of inclusion."
The likelihood of the 44% of the mixture from contributor two matching Walupupu was "3.11 quadrillion times greater if the DNA originated from Hamza Walupupu and a random, unrelated person than if it came from two random, unrelated people, These DNA results offer very strong support for the proposition of inclusion," Fracchia testified.
Fracchia testified the sperm portion offered "exclusionary support for [Leniyah] Butler," but was "inclusive for Hamza Walupupu," meaning it originated with him.
There were also swabs from inside the Hyundai Accent that offered "strong support for the proposition for inclusion" for Butler.
Another expert, FBI Special Agent Glenn Solomon-Hill, went over cellphone records. Using the cellphone towers, the FBI was able to place both Butler and Walupupu's phones in the general vicinity of Crissy Field.
"It's not GPS pinpoint accuracy," he testified.
Walupupu's family members who have been in court have declined to speak to the B.A.R. A member of Butler's family didn't answer a phone call seeking comment.
This is the third day of the second-degree murder trial of Leniyah Butler. Read the second day's coverage here.
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