A second suspect has come forward to admit to fatally beating 21-year-old transgender woman Islan Nettles, complicating the Manhattan DA's efforts to prosecute the case. The Daily News reports that the unnamed suspect said he was too intoxicated to remember the attack, but that "reliable corroborators" have confirmed that he was the assailant.
Nettles, who lived a vibrant and promising life, was stalked by a group of men and beaten to death in Harlem this summer. 20-year-old Paris Wilson was initially charged with misdemeanor assault in the incident. While some witnesses said that Wilson was the main aggressor, Wilson's attorney, Xavier Donaldson, claims it was a case of mistaken identity.
"Someone identified my client as being there, as being in the area, and ironically the young man who said he did it looks substantially similar to my client and in fact may have even had the same colored clothing on as my client," Donaldson said.
DNAinfo's source says that the police's evidence has been exhausted in the case. At a hearing on Friday, the Manhattan DA's office asked the judge in the case for more time to investigate. Wilson remains free on $2,000 bail, though the case has prevented him from returning to college.
"Justice is being delayed," Islan's mother Delores told the outlet. "To see him walk out of the court and know that he's going home...My baby can't come home."
