Windy City Times (Chicago, Illinois) - November 9, 1995
By: David Olsen
Man Gets 21 Years In Transgender Murder Case
An uptown man has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for murdering a date after discovering that the date was biologically a man, and not a woman, as he had first thought.
Cook County Criminal Court Judge Richard Neville sentenced David Feikema, 54, of 809 W. Lakeside Place, after convicting him of first-degree murder in a bench trial.
The 21-year sentence is on the lower end on the 20 to 60 year penalty that first-degree murder carries. The Cook County State's Attorney's office had requested a 40-year sentence, said Reggie Preacely, deputy press secretary for the office.
"We're always disappointed when we don't get what we asked for," he said. "Each judge is different."
Feikema met his victim, Larry Venzant, 20, on the street near the corner of Wilson Avenue and Broadway on Dec. 19, 1993, according to Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Catherine Sanders. Venzant was wearing clothing traditionally worn by women. The two then arranged to have sex and went to Feikema's apartment, Sanders said.
When Feikema discovered that Venzant was biologically a man, he stabbed him repeatedly and castrated him, she said. Feikema then placed Venzant's penis in Venzant's mouth, shoved him in a closet, and called the police.
"The only threat that this victim posed was to the defendant's masculinity, and for that he made the victim pay with his life," Sanders said.
