Kelly Stough's Murderer to Be Tried in Court

Albert Weathers, pastor of the Logos Church in Detroit, was ordered Friday, March 29 to stand trial for open murder in the death of Kelly Stough. Stough, a transgender woman, was shot and left to die in the area of Six Mile Road and Brush Street in the early morning hours of Dec. 7, 2018.
Weathers initially told police that the shooting was in self defense. Then, later during the same police questioning, said that the gun went off accidentally. In court, defense attorney David Cripps kept with the accidental shooting story.
"It was not self-defense so much as it was an accidental shooting," Cripps said. "This isn't an intentional shooting. I would ask the court to look at this as an accidental shooting."
But Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Jaimie Powell Horowitz of the Fair Michigan Justice Project said the shooting happened after Weathers argued with Stough, who also went by the name of Keanna Mattel, over the price for a sexual service. Stough was shot once in the left underarm before Weathers fled the scene. He called from his job to report the shooting approximately an hour later.
"She was disposable," Horowitz said. "He threw her out like trash and left her to die in the streets."
But according to her mother, Jessica Williams, Stough was both loved and valued.
"I don't understand the fear and the stereotyping, not just of trans women but gays, lesbians, bisexuals," Williams said in an  earlier article for Between The Lines. "I don't understand the hatred. Why not talk to somebody? Have a dialogue. They eat and breathe, have a family that loves them. They contribute to their community. I don't understand why there is so much hatred or the perception that they are trash … that people don't care what happens to them. This is not true."
Judge Michael Wagner of the 36th District Court denied Cripps' request for a bail reduction. Weathers currently remains incarcerated with his bail set at a $1 million cash bond.
"The judge said he couldn't get away from the fact that Mr. Weathers, after shooting Kelly, that he left her in the middle of the street, not knowing if her life could have been saved," said Jey'nce Poindexter Mizrahi, transgender victims advocate for Equality Michigan and a friend of Stough's, who was in the courtroom.
"He went to work and he showered and he changed clothes and then he called the police. That's why the judge said in the courtroom that he wouldn't reduce the bond."
Weathers is due back in court for an arraignment April 5.