Death penalty invoked for man ‘who killed transgender teen, gouged out her eyes and burned her body’
Andrew Vrba, 18, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ally Steinfeld, 17, last year
Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for one of the suspects in the killing of a transgender teenager whose eyes were gouged out and whose body was set on fire in southwest Missouri, court records show.
A notice requesting the sentence for Andrew Vrba, 18, was filed Monday; he is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ally Steinfeld, 17.
Investigators say that Steinfeld was stabbed several times, including in the genitals.
Vrba’s lawyer, Michael Barrett, who is also the director of the state public defender office, declined to comment ahead of a Tuesday afternoon hearing at which a trial date would be scheduled.
Authorities are not saying what led to the killing, but Texas County Sheriff James Sigman and prosecutor Parke Stevens Jr. have insisted that the crime was not motivated by Steinfeld’s gender identity.
One female suspect, Isis Schauer, 18, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder, while another, Briana Calderas, 24, awaits a first-degree murder trial.
A fourth person, James Grigsby, has pleaded not guilty to abandonment of a corpse and tampering with evidence.
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Steinfeld’s remains were found in September in the town of Cabool, near the mobile home of Calderas, with whom Steinfeld was living. Steinfeld had been missing for weeks.
Cabool is a rural area about 70 miles (115 kilometres) east of Springfield.
Vrba told investigators he initially tried to poison Steinfeld, then described how he stabbed Steinfeld in the living room of Calderas’s mobile home, Deputy Rowdy Douglas wrote in a probable cause statement.
The female suspects said that Vrba bragged to them about how he gouged Steinfeld’s eyes and stabbed Steinfeld in the genitals, Douglas wrote.
Authorities say the three suspects burned Steinfeld’s body, placed some of the bones into a garbage bag and put the bag in the chicken coop.
Calderas admitted helping burn the body and led authorities to the knife used in the killing, Douglas wrote.
