Alleged killer of transgender advocate Mar’Quis ‘MJ’ Jackson has been identified

Authorities have identified the person they say killed Mar’Quis “MJ” Jackson, a transgender man who was an advocate in the Philadelphia transgender community, District Attorney Larry Krasner said Wednesday.

Charles Mitchell, 40, of the 1800 block of Brunner Street in North Philadelphia, is being sought by law enforcement in connection with the killing of Jackson, 33, who was found dead in December in Mitchell’s backyard. Authorities say he had been beaten and left outside, shoeless, on a cold winter day.

Mitchell faces charges of murder, abuse of corpse, tampering with evidence, and related crimes. Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said the motive for the crime was unclear. Jackson may have survived, she said, if he had received medical attention sooner.

Police were called to the house in North Philadelphia on Dec. 14 and found Jackson’s body in the backyard. An autopsy later revealed that he died of multiple blunt-force injuries to the head and his death was ruled a homicide.

Jackson’s sister, Markiya, spoke at a news conference with Krasner on Wednesday and said she prayed for the swift apprehension of her brother’s killer.

“It was really hard to hear the name. And it’s really hard to see a photo,” said Jackson, 29. “That makes it really hard. And just to know that my brother really went somewhere with the intentions to hang out with someone and for him to never come out of that place but to see the suspect walk out of there is very alarming. It’s hurtful, to say the least.”

Jackson’s mother, Tara, said she was grateful that police had solved the crime and identified her son’s killer, but she said she would not be satisfied until he was arrested and convicted.

“I even asked the detectives why they haven’t put his picture on TV,” Tara Jackson said. “I know somebody knows where he’s at. Like I’ve said before, the streets talk.”

Jackson’s death came just weeks after the slaying of Shahere “Diamond” Jackson-McDonald, a transgender woman who was found shot to death in an apartment on the 400 block of Manheim Street in Germantown. Authorities have not released the names of any suspects in her death and are calling on the public to help with any information about the case.

The deaths underscore the problem of violence against the transgender community, particularly Black and Latinx transgender women, and the difficulties families of victims often encounter when seeking justice, said Kendall Stephens, a transgender activist, who was herself attacked in 2020.

Jackson and Jackson-McDonald were among 38 transgender or gender nonconforming people who were killed across the nation last year, according to research by the Human Rights Campaign.

Between 2017 and 2021, at least 175 transgender people were killed nationwide, according to an investigation by Business Insider. Of those cases, 61 were unsolved, according to Insider.

Crimes against the LGBTQ community, including assault and murder, are not recognized as hate crimes under Pennsylvania law. In 2014, Philadelphia passed legislation that recognizes attacks based on gender identity or sexual orientation as hate crimes.

Stephens, along with Krasner, called on Pennsylvania lawmakers to include the LGBTQ community as part of a protected class.

“If we are going to have laws that make it an additional crime [to attack] particular groups based upon hate, then LGBT people should be in that group,” he said. “Our hate-crime statute should encompass LGBTQ people in general so they have similar protections to other groups.”

Tara Jackson remembers her son as “very smart” and a truly good person, always willing to help anybody in need.

Jackson, who came out as transgender when he was 17, was an advocate for other trans people, especially young people, his mother said. He often volunteered alongside Stephens.

Stephens was beaten outside her home in Point Breeze in 2020 by an assailant who shouted transphobic slurs. Last month, Tymesha Wearing, 36, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and conspiracy in connection with that assault and apologized to Stephens.

On Wednesday, Stephens called for more legal protection for the LGBTQ community and lamented the loss of transgender people like Jackson, Jackson-McDonald, and Tracy “Mia” Green, a transgender woman who was killed in 2020.

“We’re tired of hearing ‘rest in peace’ and ‘rest in power,’” she said. “Peace and power should be experienced while we’re alive.”

Tara Jackson, meanwhile, hopes to get the same justice for her son and to one day confront the man who killed him.

“I am very angry what you did to my child,” she said. “Because you could’ve just left my child alone. My child didn’t do anything to you. You took something from me that made me who I am today.”