Man Gets 12 Years for Shooting Trans Woman in Face
Christian Lucas pleaded guilty to reduced charges for shooting a transgender woman in the face in a Houston hotel room.
A man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for shooting a transgender woman in the face during a robbery.
Christian Lucas was originally charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, but pleaded down to aggravated assault threat with a deadly weapon.
In exchange for his guilty plea, he was sentenced to 12 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
According to charging documents, Houston police responded to reports of a shooting on November 13, 2022.
Upon arriving on the scene, they found a woman who had been shot in the face. The woman told officers she had met a man — later identified as Lucas — on a dating app called “Tagged” the day before.
After talking with the man on the app for a day, the woman picked him up on Bissonnet Street, a major street in Houston, and decided to spend the night with him at a hotel.
The woman told police that the situation soured after Lucas became angry with her because she did not want to have sex with him without using a condom, reports NBC affiliate KPRC-TV.
The woman said she awoke at 8 a.m. the following morning to find Lucas packing her cell phone, car keys, and wallet into a bag. She said that when Lucas realized she was awake, he shot her in the face, tearing her entire bottom jaw. The woman said she pretended to play dead and watched Lucas leave the hotel room.
Surveillance video from the hotel allegedly caught Lucas running out of the room and fleeing in the woman’s 2014 Black Nissan Sentra.
The victim was treated for her injuries, but needs extensive reconstruction surgery.
According to court documents, doctors at Ben Taub Hospital have told her it will require more surgeries to repair her lower jaw, and that she may never fully recover her speech.
Two weeks after her initial surgery, the woman was able to write out her statement and provide detectives with a phone number and name of the suspect. She later identified Lucas through a photo lineup.
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