August 8, 2025 • 24 mins
28 year old Bernina Mata was a bi-sexual woman who lived with a man named Russell. Her and Russell would sometimes hook up for sex. On June 27th, 1998, Russell dropped Bernina off at a tavern. Bernina met a man named John there and brought him home for a nightcap. Bernina and John became intimate and Russell rushed in to put a stop to it. While Russell held John back, Bernina stabbed John and killed him. The prosecutor and jury were biased with the prosecution calling Bernina a man hating, hard core lesbian.
True crime quickie is from Houston, Texas in 2024, The Murder of Vanity Williams.
https://www.patreon.com/c/rainbowcrimes
Promo for: Box in the Basement
Intro: Shire Girl by David Fesilyan
Outro: Beating Heart by David Renda
Resources:
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/il-supreme-court/1273448.html
https://law.justia.com/cases/illinois/court-of-appeals-second-appellate-district/2004/2030446.html#:~:text=On%20January%2011%2C%202003%2C%20former,without%20the%20possibility%20of%20parole.
https://www.freebryce.org/
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/illinois-death-row-inmates-granted-commutation-by-governor-george-ryan-on-january-12-2003
https://www.ruthannrobson.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/lesbians_death-penalty-hard-core-case-.pdf
https://www.advocate.com/crime/vanity-williams-trans-woman-killed
https://www.hrc.org/news/vanity-williams-black-transgender-woman-who-created-and-made-a-safe-space-for-everyone-killed-in-houston-texas
https://cw39.com/crime/arrest-made-after-woman-is-murdered-in-downtown-houston-central-business-district-apartment-lobby/
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/07/germanys-parliament-banned-the-pride-flag-it-backfired-spectacularly/?utm_campaign=good-news-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_edition=202508020100&utm_source=newsletter
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beyond-the-rainbow-podcast--4398945/support.
True crime quickie is from Houston, Texas in 2024, The Murder of Vanity Williams.
https://www.patreon.com/c/rainbowcrimes
Promo for: Box in the Basement
Intro: Shire Girl by David Fesilyan
Outro: Beating Heart by David Renda
Resources:
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/il-supreme-court/1273448.html
https://law.justia.com/cases/illinois/court-of-appeals-second-appellate-district/2004/2030446.html#:~:text=On%20January%2011%2C%202003%2C%20former,without%20the%20possibility%20of%20parole.
https://www.freebryce.org/
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/illinois-death-row-inmates-granted-commutation-by-governor-george-ryan-on-january-12-2003
https://www.ruthannrobson.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/lesbians_death-penalty-hard-core-case-.pdf
https://www.advocate.com/crime/vanity-williams-trans-woman-killed
https://www.hrc.org/news/vanity-williams-black-transgender-woman-who-created-and-made-a-safe-space-for-everyone-killed-in-houston-texas
https://cw39.com/crime/arrest-made-after-woman-is-murdered-in-downtown-houston-central-business-district-apartment-lobby/
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/07/germanys-parliament-banned-the-pride-flag-it-backfired-spectacularly/?utm_campaign=good-news-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_edition=202508020100&utm_source=newsletter
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beyond-the-rainbow-podcast--4398945/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
There are over two hundred thousand unsolved homicides in the
United States justice system right now, and many of those
cases haven't seen the light of day in years, decades.
In some instances, the case files and evidence are sitting
in a box on a dusty shelf and a basement,
(00:23):
forgotten by law enforcement and the media, while the families
and friends left behind wait for answers and fight for justice.
Sometimes there is nobody left to remember or to speak
up on behalf of the victim.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'm Marlene and I'm Leah, and that is exactly what
Box in the Basement sets out to do. To shine
a light on those forgotten victims and to bring attention
to unsolved murders and disappearances. We want to help families
tell their stories, and we want to assist the families
and friends of victims find the resources and support they
(00:57):
need to continue their fight for justice. Join us every
Thursday for new episodes of Box in the Basement. Wherever
you find your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Dark cast Network the best in indie podcasts. Check out
all the great shows at darkcastnetwork dot com. Hi there,
I'm Courtney, the host of the Book of the Dead podcast,
and you are listening to Rainbow Crimes with hopefully some
Unicorn justice.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Hello and welcome to Rainbow Crimes Fight four sixty three
to Belvederia, Illinois. I'm your fly attend in fabulosack. Please
put your seats forward, lock the tray in front of
you in, fasten your seat belts. Once we're settled in
the air, a stack and drink cart will make its
(02:03):
way around to you as ah wee's thank you for
flying Rainbow Crimes.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
Hey, they're warriors. It's me your friend, CJ. We just
entered into a brand new season, season eighteen. Woo whoo.
In the past seven months, we've had two tsunami warnings
here on the coast of Oregon, and I'm happy to
say nothing much has come from either of them. With
the last tsunami warnings after the earthquake in Russia, I
(02:32):
guess the biggest of the tsunami waves hit Hawaii between
four and five feet tall waves, still not enough to
do significant damage. California saw three foot waves. In Japan,
they were only hit with one and a half foot waves. Thankfully,
that scary eight point seven magnitude earthquake in Russia didn't
(02:53):
do much damage to us. Here on the west coast
of the US. It just instilled some fear in us.
But I wasn't as panicked as I was back at
the beginning of the year when the first tsunami warning
hit us, although I wasn't able to get to sleep
until three am. With this last one, I was just
waiting for the wave like the one in the movie
(03:15):
The Impossible. That film scared the hell out of me.
If you haven't seen it, it's from twenty twelve and
it stars Naomi Watts, her and her family. They're vacationing
on the shores of Thailand when it hits with a
gigantic tsunami wave. So every time now when we get
a tsunami warning, I think of that movie and I
(03:37):
get a little bit freaked out. But this time we
decided not to evacuate to high ground and just stay put.
I didn't want to drive around at midnight looking for
a high point in my little city. Honestly, the first
time we had the tsunami warning back in the end
of January, maybe it was the beginning of February, we
(03:57):
did panic and we found one of the highest points
of the city to wait it out. It was chaos
so much traffic and people were scrambling. Even police were
driving around telling people to evacuate. But this time the
threat didn't seem to be as big of a deal.
We didn't even get a cell phoam alarm for it,
(04:18):
just my Alexa and my next store app notifications. And
if it wasn't for my friend Ashley from the Fuck
That Podcast texting me to tell me about it, I
might not have even known about it. So thanks Ashley,
who lives on the East Coast, I finally got my
front two fixed. And best of all, my dentist is
(04:38):
a true crime podcast fan. I told her all about
Darkcast Network and I gave her a card for Rainbow Crimes.
Best of all, I really like my dentist, and now
she just hired that incredible dental high genis from the
other place I used to go to.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
That was the other.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Place that didn't have a dentist for over a year,
but I loved the hygienist. Now I get them BOTHO. AnyWho,
that's about For what's been going on here this episode,
I'd like to tell you about a woman who committed
a crime in nineteen ninety eight and she's been dealing
with it ever since. In nineteen ninety nine, twenty nine
(05:18):
year old Latinix Bernina Mata was given the death sentence
by the State of Illinois. In retrospect, her trial was
extremely biased, considering the prosecution continually referred to Bernina as
a hardcore lesbian. They based their judgment on books they
found at her apartment. The books had titles like call
(05:41):
Me Lesbian, Homosexualities, and Best Lesbian Reading. Prosecutors also maintained
that Bernina's motive for killing a man was because she
identified as a man hating lesbian. At that time of
her life, Bernina was actually bisexual with a lean more
towards a lesbian lifestyle. With that preface, let's dig into
(06:06):
this case. I wish I could start off with a
bit about Bernina's early life, but that information has been elusive,
so I guess I'll start with the crime she was
accused of and admitted to committing. On June twenty seventh
of nineteen ninety eight. Bernina lived with a roommate named
Russell Gunmeyer. Russell and Bernina would sometimes hook up for sex,
(06:30):
but in the evening of June twenty seventh, Russell dropped
Bernina off at a local tavern. He returned to the
tavern later that evening. Bernina was just in the mood
to go out and drink and socialize with others. While
at the bar, Bernina had downed a couple of drinks
and she was engaging in a conversation with a man
(06:51):
named John Dreheim. She had seen her roommate come back
into the bar around ten pm. Bernina told her roommate Russell,
that she was going to kill John because he touched
her and it made her feel uncomfortable. She proceeded to
tell Russell he was going to help her dispose of
John's body. Russell told Bernina that he would not help,
(07:14):
so Bernina went back and sat with John, and then
Russell left the establishment and went back to their apartment.
This all was according to Russell's court testimony. Later, towards
the end of the night, Bernina invited John home for
a night cap. Another man named James Clark also went
back to Bernina's home with John and Bernina, but James
(07:37):
only stayed for about twenty minutes before he left. After
James left the apartment, two stories took place. One of
the stories was from Russell Bernina's roommate. He testified that
he was so upset that Bernina brought John home he
had to go outside to clear his head. Whence James left.
(07:58):
When Brussell walked up side, Bernina and John were sitting
next to each other on the couch. He then said
he paced back and forth for a few minutes, and
then he went back into the apartment. The couple were
no longer seated on the couch, but Russell could hear
sounds coming from Bernina's bedroom. Russell walked over to the
(08:20):
bedroom and he opened the door. When he testified that
he saw were Bernina and John having what looked like
consensual sex. Russell said he went over to John and
he grabbed him by the arm to stop him from
having intercourse with Bernina, but John struggled against Russell. He
said he was able to subdue John. He continued that
(08:41):
Bernina had disappeared somewhere while he was trying to hold
John back, but suddenly she came back into the room
and she stabbed John in his chest with a knife.
Russell said he immediately let John go, and then Bernina
proceeded to stab John five more times. Russell testified that
(09:02):
he ran from the room and he went to vomit.
He admitted he later helped Bernina dispose of John's body,
dumping it along a rural, rarely traveled road. Russell then
said that he went back into Bernina's bedroom at the apartment.
He removed the bed, cleaned up all the blood, and
he repainted the walls. And then there is Bernina's story.
(09:27):
According to Bernina Mauda's account, she met John dre him
at a bar, and he later returned to her apartment
with her. She claims that John attempted to rape her
and she responded by stabbing him in self defense. Her
defense team argued that her history of sexual abuse in
(09:48):
her belief that she was about to be raped, these
were mitigating factors for her reaction. A forensic psychologist also
diagnosed Bernina with rape traumasin post traumatic stress disorder. Anne
noted that she experienced flashbacks of her abusive father during
the incident. Bernina admitted to stabbing John. The prosecution contended
(10:14):
that the killing was premeditated and disputed the self defense claim.
They emphasized that Bernina's sexual orientation suggested she killed John
because she was offended by his unwanted sexual advances. The
prosecution argued that a normal heterosexual woman would not be
(10:34):
offended by such conduct as to murder. Really, prosecution, that's
the best to God, And then the prosecution continued on
about her being a hardcore lesbian. At the end of
her trial, Bernina was not only found guilty, she was
sentenced by the state of Illinois to death for the
(10:56):
murder of John. I find it odd that the jury
in the prosecution was so trusting of Russell's statement. I mean,
the prosecution's whole case really amounted to Russell being a
credible witness. By Russell's own admission, he and Bernina would
often have sex. Isn't it possible that Russell wied about
(11:18):
everything except for helping Bernina dispose of John's body. I mean,
the whole scene that he painted with Bernina walking over
to him at the bar and telling him I'm gonna
kill John tonight and you're gonna help me, Well, that
seems a little far fetched. And if she told you that,
don't go home, go somewhere else and hang out to me.
(11:40):
Bernina apparently seemed to like John. She spent time with
him at the bar. She invited him and his friend
back home with her. If he touched her at the
bar and made her feel uncomfortable, why wouldn't she have
done what any normal minded person would have done and
left the guy at the bar If she wasn't interested
and she was offended. That makes no sense when there
(12:04):
have to be some kind of derange thinking going on
in Bernina's head. If she thinks, oh, he touched me, funny,
it made me feel uncomfortable, so I'm going to kill
the fucker, I would think she would have to have
some kind of psychosis to think that she was going
to murder someone. I mean, John didn't grab her by
the pussy. He just touched her and made her feel uncomfortable. Bullshit.
(12:27):
I don't believe it, Russell. What I do believe is
that Bernina did invite John into her room that night
to full around a little bit. I'm sure that both
of them were also probably a bit drunk, and perhaps
John got too rough and tried forcing her into doing
something that she just didn't want to do. Maybe she
(12:47):
was yelling at John to stop, and that's the noise
Russell heard. And why would he enter her room in
the first place unless he heard her crying for help?
Unless Russell's just a creeper who like watching people have
sex up close and personal. Couldn't Russell maybe have been
trying to, as he said, subdue John because John was
(13:09):
forcing himself onto Bernina. Then Bernina, who was freaked out,
ran into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, came back and
stabbed John. That whole version makes much more sense to me.
But then I started to wonder what could Russell's motive
possibly be for lying about this. It popped in my
(13:30):
head that jealousy is the biggest motive I can think of. Here,
Russell was pissed off that Bernina found John attractive and
then brought him home. He went outside to pace because
he felt his anger rising with this other man in
their apartment. When he heard Bernina cry out, he rushed
in to save the day. Consensual sex between two adults
(13:53):
my ass. When Russell was picked up as an accomplice
for murder, he concocted the story worry about Bernina telling
him she was going to kill John. Also, in Russell's version,
he looks like a big purv running into Bernina's room
to pull two consenting adults off of each other. Russell
was trying to get a much lighter sentence for his
(14:15):
part in John's murder, and he did. Russell only served
four years of prison time for helping to conceal the murder.
But then here was Bernina on death row. Something about
all that just stinks to me, And on January eleventh,
two thousand and three, the then governor of Illinois, who
(14:37):
it must have also stunk to him to commuted Bernina's
death sentence to a life sentence with no possibility of parole.
Better but still not quite what Bernina was hoping for.
She appealed the life's sentence, wishing for a new trial
to be granted due to lack of evidence proving that
John's murder was premeditated. In she maintained that she stabbed
(15:03):
him in self defense. Bernina remains incarcerated, but in the
early twenty twenties, she transitioned her gender and is now
a trans man who calls himself Bryce Matta. Followers, friends,
and supporters of Bryce continue to fight for his justice
(15:23):
within the court systems. After all, the prosecution and the
jury did seem to show bias against lesbians during the
trial that earned him a death sentence. It's in the
hands of the current Illinois governor if Bryce's case can
be finalized with his release at having plenty of time
(15:44):
served with twenty six years rest in power John Our
True Crime Quickie. This episode is from Houston, Texas, just
last year in twenty twenty four. At eleven ten pm
on August second, twenty two, twenty four, shots rang out
on to seventeen eleven Caroline Street in Houston. The police
(16:07):
dispatch continued to ring with calls about shots fired. Within minutes,
a patrol car would arrive on scene and find a
non responsive woman with gunshot wounds. Thirty four year old
Vanity Williams was a black trans woman who was an
Air Force veteran. She was attending nursing school with the
(16:28):
hopes of opening up a medical spa. A medical spa
is one that serves as a traditional day spa for
relaxation as well as offering certain medical procedures under the
supervision of a licensed physician. Vanity's other passion was to
lift the black community and women in general. She had
(16:50):
an inane ability to speak the truth to power about
what it means to be a woman and what it
means to be a woman of Coloran did his friends
say that she always had a way to make them
smile and laugh. She had a resilient soul, a brilliant mind,
and a beautiful spirit. She made a safe space for
(17:12):
just about everyone who knew her. Yes, it was Vanity Williams,
who lived at seventeen eleven Caroline Street in Houston, and
she was the unresponsive woman emergency services had found that
night in August. She was laying in the lobby of
her apartment building. Vanity had been shot multiple times, and
(17:33):
she was dead. A week later, a twenty six year
old man named Tristian Sanders was arrested for shooting and
killing Vanity. Tristian's name is spelled like Christian, It's not Tristan,
so I believe it's Tristian, just in case you think
I'm saying his name funny. Tristian was picked up in Louring,
(17:55):
Louisiana by the Saint Charles County Sheriff's Department. Oddly enough,
here it is a year later and police have not
released many details of the case, including what Tristian's motive
was for murdering Vanity. The only thing that's been said
was that Triscian and Vanity were acquainted with each other,
(18:16):
and that's pretty fucking vague. If you ask me, it
looks as though he might still be in a Louisiana
jell awaiting extradition back to Texas. Also, if the move
has gone forward, the information isn't readily available to the public.
I'm going to keep on watching this case for a
while to see if anything else might ooze out, but
(18:38):
I'm kind of doubtful. Too often trans folks cases, especially
those of trans black women, they're swept under the rug,
and even if there is some justice for the victim,
a lot of news media outlets won't report on it.
But we'll keep our eyes on it for a while,
just to see rest in power, vanity for our sunshine today. Well,
(19:03):
it's not really a good news story or a fun
coming out story, but it is a really good way
to look at what gender dysphoria is and might fill
to a person who is trans. I found this answer
from a non trans person on the CORR website, and
I love the empathetic way the person described it. They said,
(19:26):
assume you were born with a penis and you happily
enjoyed living life as a male. Now imagine that every
day people insisted on calling you miss or ma'am. Imagine
you had to wear dresses and keep your hair long.
Imagine everyone calling you janine. Imagine having breasts and hating them.
(19:47):
Imagine this stuff happening to you every single day, all
hours of the day. You'd hate it, right, And that
makes sense because you're a dude, the very lucky to
have been born in a body that matches your brain's
gender identity. Your gender identity is in your brain, not
(20:09):
in your pants. If you lost your male genitals and
grew breasts, do you think you would suddenly become a woman.
Of course not, You're a dude. Your brain knows you're
a dude. You'd still want to dress like a man
and act like a man and use a male name.
I assume you'd agree that mental illness exists, and that
(20:33):
the brain is far from perfect, that depression, psychosis, OCD
and other brain anomalies exist, that sometimes our brains don't
do what we want it to do. That's what it's
like for trans people. I suspect they wish that their
brain would identify with the gender matching their genitals and
(20:55):
their secondary sex characteristics. No one chooses to be mocked, hated,
and even killed because their brain gender identity isn't what
other people think it should be. Do you know how
many trans people commit suicide each year because they can't transition.
(21:17):
Maybe their parents have threatened to disown them for being trans.
Maybe they live in a country where being trans is illegal.
Maybe they're afraid of all the people who hate and
mock them because they're trans. I wouldn't wish gender dysphoria
on my worst enemy. Some people whom I love Desmitherines
(21:38):
are trans. I fully support them living their best life
as their brain gender. Nobody asks for gender dysphoria. Please
don't harass people for having a condition they didn't ask for.
Try to be accepting even if you still don't understand them.
Be supportive of their happiness, not harming you. Please don't
(22:02):
do them harm with unkind words or worse. Thank you.
I really like what that poster said. And as a
side note to this, once I told you all, I
was discussing gender dysphoria with a trans woman that I met,
and she told me not all trans people suffer from
gender dysphoria, and she was right. Non binary trans people
(22:25):
do not have gender dysphoria. And I'm still trying to
wrap my head around all that. But I do know
someone who fits in this category. This person was a
signed female at birth, calls themselves trans prefers. They them pronouns.
Maybe he also, but they've done nothing to change or
(22:47):
transition their gender over and they most likely never will.
They're in a relationship with a cisgendered man, and that's
fine as long as they're happy. I still struggle with
this concept, but that's on me, not them or anyone else.
Maybe someday I will reach out to them and see
if they can educate me further on the topic. Anyway,
(23:10):
I just felt that it was such an interesting post
and I wanted to share it with you all. One
brief bit of good news to end this episode. Germany
ban the use of Pride flags on their government buildings. No,
that's not the good news. The good news is at
the LGBTQ and allies in Germany. They're standing strong, with
(23:32):
over two hundred Pride events this year and lots of
visibility everywhere. Letting their rainbows fly flags are not good
job to the citizens of Germany. Stand strong, but please
just make sure you're safe about doing it. I love you, warriors.
(23:52):
You matter so very much. Remember it's not a crime
to be gay or to live your truth, unless sure
a murderer
There are over two hundred thousand unsolved homicides in the
United States justice system right now, and many of those
cases haven't seen the light of day in years, decades.
In some instances, the case files and evidence are sitting
in a box on a dusty shelf and a basement,
(00:23):
forgotten by law enforcement and the media, while the families
and friends left behind wait for answers and fight for justice.
Sometimes there is nobody left to remember or to speak
up on behalf of the victim.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'm Marlene and I'm Leah, and that is exactly what
Box in the Basement sets out to do. To shine
a light on those forgotten victims and to bring attention
to unsolved murders and disappearances. We want to help families
tell their stories, and we want to assist the families
and friends of victims find the resources and support they
(00:57):
need to continue their fight for justice. Join us every
Thursday for new episodes of Box in the Basement. Wherever
you find your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Dark cast Network the best in indie podcasts. Check out
all the great shows at darkcastnetwork dot com. Hi there,
I'm Courtney, the host of the Book of the Dead podcast,
and you are listening to Rainbow Crimes with hopefully some
Unicorn justice.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Hello and welcome to Rainbow Crimes Fight four sixty three
to Belvederia, Illinois. I'm your fly attend in fabulosack. Please
put your seats forward, lock the tray in front of
you in, fasten your seat belts. Once we're settled in
the air, a stack and drink cart will make its
(02:03):
way around to you as ah wee's thank you for
flying Rainbow Crimes.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
Hey, they're warriors. It's me your friend, CJ. We just
entered into a brand new season, season eighteen. Woo whoo.
In the past seven months, we've had two tsunami warnings
here on the coast of Oregon, and I'm happy to
say nothing much has come from either of them. With
the last tsunami warnings after the earthquake in Russia, I
(02:32):
guess the biggest of the tsunami waves hit Hawaii between
four and five feet tall waves, still not enough to
do significant damage. California saw three foot waves. In Japan,
they were only hit with one and a half foot waves. Thankfully,
that scary eight point seven magnitude earthquake in Russia didn't
(02:53):
do much damage to us. Here on the west coast
of the US. It just instilled some fear in us.
But I wasn't as panicked as I was back at
the beginning of the year when the first tsunami warning
hit us, although I wasn't able to get to sleep
until three am. With this last one, I was just
waiting for the wave like the one in the movie
(03:15):
The Impossible. That film scared the hell out of me.
If you haven't seen it, it's from twenty twelve and
it stars Naomi Watts, her and her family. They're vacationing
on the shores of Thailand when it hits with a
gigantic tsunami wave. So every time now when we get
a tsunami warning, I think of that movie and I
(03:37):
get a little bit freaked out. But this time we
decided not to evacuate to high ground and just stay put.
I didn't want to drive around at midnight looking for
a high point in my little city. Honestly, the first
time we had the tsunami warning back in the end
of January, maybe it was the beginning of February, we
(03:57):
did panic and we found one of the highest points
of the city to wait it out. It was chaos
so much traffic and people were scrambling. Even police were
driving around telling people to evacuate. But this time the
threat didn't seem to be as big of a deal.
We didn't even get a cell phoam alarm for it,
(04:18):
just my Alexa and my next store app notifications. And
if it wasn't for my friend Ashley from the Fuck
That Podcast texting me to tell me about it, I
might not have even known about it. So thanks Ashley,
who lives on the East Coast, I finally got my
front two fixed. And best of all, my dentist is
(04:38):
a true crime podcast fan. I told her all about
Darkcast Network and I gave her a card for Rainbow Crimes.
Best of all, I really like my dentist, and now
she just hired that incredible dental high genis from the
other place I used to go to.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
That was the other.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Place that didn't have a dentist for over a year,
but I loved the hygienist. Now I get them BOTHO. AnyWho,
that's about For what's been going on here this episode,
I'd like to tell you about a woman who committed
a crime in nineteen ninety eight and she's been dealing
with it ever since. In nineteen ninety nine, twenty nine
(05:18):
year old Latinix Bernina Mata was given the death sentence
by the State of Illinois. In retrospect, her trial was
extremely biased, considering the prosecution continually referred to Bernina as
a hardcore lesbian. They based their judgment on books they
found at her apartment. The books had titles like call
(05:41):
Me Lesbian, Homosexualities, and Best Lesbian Reading. Prosecutors also maintained
that Bernina's motive for killing a man was because she
identified as a man hating lesbian. At that time of
her life, Bernina was actually bisexual with a lean more
towards a lesbian lifestyle. With that preface, let's dig into
(06:06):
this case. I wish I could start off with a
bit about Bernina's early life, but that information has been elusive,
so I guess I'll start with the crime she was
accused of and admitted to committing. On June twenty seventh
of nineteen ninety eight. Bernina lived with a roommate named
Russell Gunmeyer. Russell and Bernina would sometimes hook up for sex,
(06:30):
but in the evening of June twenty seventh, Russell dropped
Bernina off at a local tavern. He returned to the
tavern later that evening. Bernina was just in the mood
to go out and drink and socialize with others. While
at the bar, Bernina had downed a couple of drinks
and she was engaging in a conversation with a man
(06:51):
named John Dreheim. She had seen her roommate come back
into the bar around ten pm. Bernina told her roommate Russell,
that she was going to kill John because he touched
her and it made her feel uncomfortable. She proceeded to
tell Russell he was going to help her dispose of
John's body. Russell told Bernina that he would not help,
(07:14):
so Bernina went back and sat with John, and then
Russell left the establishment and went back to their apartment.
This all was according to Russell's court testimony. Later, towards
the end of the night, Bernina invited John home for
a night cap. Another man named James Clark also went
back to Bernina's home with John and Bernina, but James
(07:37):
only stayed for about twenty minutes before he left. After
James left the apartment, two stories took place. One of
the stories was from Russell Bernina's roommate. He testified that
he was so upset that Bernina brought John home he
had to go outside to clear his head. Whence James left.
(07:58):
When Brussell walked up side, Bernina and John were sitting
next to each other on the couch. He then said
he paced back and forth for a few minutes, and
then he went back into the apartment. The couple were
no longer seated on the couch, but Russell could hear
sounds coming from Bernina's bedroom. Russell walked over to the
(08:20):
bedroom and he opened the door. When he testified that
he saw were Bernina and John having what looked like
consensual sex. Russell said he went over to John and
he grabbed him by the arm to stop him from
having intercourse with Bernina, but John struggled against Russell. He
said he was able to subdue John. He continued that
(08:41):
Bernina had disappeared somewhere while he was trying to hold
John back, but suddenly she came back into the room
and she stabbed John in his chest with a knife.
Russell said he immediately let John go, and then Bernina
proceeded to stab John five more times. Russell testified that
(09:02):
he ran from the room and he went to vomit.
He admitted he later helped Bernina dispose of John's body,
dumping it along a rural, rarely traveled road. Russell then
said that he went back into Bernina's bedroom at the apartment.
He removed the bed, cleaned up all the blood, and
he repainted the walls. And then there is Bernina's story.
(09:27):
According to Bernina Mauda's account, she met John dre him
at a bar, and he later returned to her apartment
with her. She claims that John attempted to rape her
and she responded by stabbing him in self defense. Her
defense team argued that her history of sexual abuse in
(09:48):
her belief that she was about to be raped, these
were mitigating factors for her reaction. A forensic psychologist also
diagnosed Bernina with rape traumasin post traumatic stress disorder. Anne
noted that she experienced flashbacks of her abusive father during
the incident. Bernina admitted to stabbing John. The prosecution contended
(10:14):
that the killing was premeditated and disputed the self defense claim.
They emphasized that Bernina's sexual orientation suggested she killed John
because she was offended by his unwanted sexual advances. The
prosecution argued that a normal heterosexual woman would not be
(10:34):
offended by such conduct as to murder. Really, prosecution, that's
the best to God, And then the prosecution continued on
about her being a hardcore lesbian. At the end of
her trial, Bernina was not only found guilty, she was
sentenced by the state of Illinois to death for the
(10:56):
murder of John. I find it odd that the jury
in the prosecution was so trusting of Russell's statement. I mean,
the prosecution's whole case really amounted to Russell being a
credible witness. By Russell's own admission, he and Bernina would
often have sex. Isn't it possible that Russell wied about
(11:18):
everything except for helping Bernina dispose of John's body. I mean,
the whole scene that he painted with Bernina walking over
to him at the bar and telling him I'm gonna
kill John tonight and you're gonna help me, Well, that
seems a little far fetched. And if she told you that,
don't go home, go somewhere else and hang out to me.
(11:40):
Bernina apparently seemed to like John. She spent time with
him at the bar. She invited him and his friend
back home with her. If he touched her at the
bar and made her feel uncomfortable, why wouldn't she have
done what any normal minded person would have done and
left the guy at the bar If she wasn't interested
and she was offended. That makes no sense when there
(12:04):
have to be some kind of derange thinking going on
in Bernina's head. If she thinks, oh, he touched me, funny,
it made me feel uncomfortable, so I'm going to kill
the fucker, I would think she would have to have
some kind of psychosis to think that she was going
to murder someone. I mean, John didn't grab her by
the pussy. He just touched her and made her feel uncomfortable. Bullshit.
(12:27):
I don't believe it, Russell. What I do believe is
that Bernina did invite John into her room that night
to full around a little bit. I'm sure that both
of them were also probably a bit drunk, and perhaps
John got too rough and tried forcing her into doing
something that she just didn't want to do. Maybe she
(12:47):
was yelling at John to stop, and that's the noise
Russell heard. And why would he enter her room in
the first place unless he heard her crying for help?
Unless Russell's just a creeper who like watching people have
sex up close and personal. Couldn't Russell maybe have been
trying to, as he said, subdue John because John was
(13:09):
forcing himself onto Bernina. Then Bernina, who was freaked out,
ran into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, came back and
stabbed John. That whole version makes much more sense to me.
But then I started to wonder what could Russell's motive
possibly be for lying about this. It popped in my
(13:30):
head that jealousy is the biggest motive I can think of. Here,
Russell was pissed off that Bernina found John attractive and
then brought him home. He went outside to pace because
he felt his anger rising with this other man in
their apartment. When he heard Bernina cry out, he rushed
in to save the day. Consensual sex between two adults
(13:53):
my ass. When Russell was picked up as an accomplice
for murder, he concocted the story worry about Bernina telling
him she was going to kill John. Also, in Russell's version,
he looks like a big purv running into Bernina's room
to pull two consenting adults off of each other. Russell
was trying to get a much lighter sentence for his
(14:15):
part in John's murder, and he did. Russell only served
four years of prison time for helping to conceal the murder.
But then here was Bernina on death row. Something about
all that just stinks to me, And on January eleventh,
two thousand and three, the then governor of Illinois, who
(14:37):
it must have also stunk to him to commuted Bernina's
death sentence to a life sentence with no possibility of parole.
Better but still not quite what Bernina was hoping for.
She appealed the life's sentence, wishing for a new trial
to be granted due to lack of evidence proving that
John's murder was premeditated. In she maintained that she stabbed
(15:03):
him in self defense. Bernina remains incarcerated, but in the
early twenty twenties, she transitioned her gender and is now
a trans man who calls himself Bryce Matta. Followers, friends,
and supporters of Bryce continue to fight for his justice
(15:23):
within the court systems. After all, the prosecution and the
jury did seem to show bias against lesbians during the
trial that earned him a death sentence. It's in the
hands of the current Illinois governor if Bryce's case can
be finalized with his release at having plenty of time
(15:44):
served with twenty six years rest in power John Our
True Crime Quickie. This episode is from Houston, Texas, just
last year in twenty twenty four. At eleven ten pm
on August second, twenty two, twenty four, shots rang out
on to seventeen eleven Caroline Street in Houston. The police
(16:07):
dispatch continued to ring with calls about shots fired. Within minutes,
a patrol car would arrive on scene and find a
non responsive woman with gunshot wounds. Thirty four year old
Vanity Williams was a black trans woman who was an
Air Force veteran. She was attending nursing school with the
(16:28):
hopes of opening up a medical spa. A medical spa
is one that serves as a traditional day spa for
relaxation as well as offering certain medical procedures under the
supervision of a licensed physician. Vanity's other passion was to
lift the black community and women in general. She had
(16:50):
an inane ability to speak the truth to power about
what it means to be a woman and what it
means to be a woman of Coloran did his friends
say that she always had a way to make them
smile and laugh. She had a resilient soul, a brilliant mind,
and a beautiful spirit. She made a safe space for
(17:12):
just about everyone who knew her. Yes, it was Vanity Williams,
who lived at seventeen eleven Caroline Street in Houston, and
she was the unresponsive woman emergency services had found that
night in August. She was laying in the lobby of
her apartment building. Vanity had been shot multiple times, and
(17:33):
she was dead. A week later, a twenty six year
old man named Tristian Sanders was arrested for shooting and
killing Vanity. Tristian's name is spelled like Christian, It's not Tristan,
so I believe it's Tristian, just in case you think
I'm saying his name funny. Tristian was picked up in Louring,
(17:55):
Louisiana by the Saint Charles County Sheriff's Department. Oddly enough,
here it is a year later and police have not
released many details of the case, including what Tristian's motive
was for murdering Vanity. The only thing that's been said
was that Triscian and Vanity were acquainted with each other,
(18:16):
and that's pretty fucking vague. If you ask me, it
looks as though he might still be in a Louisiana
jell awaiting extradition back to Texas. Also, if the move
has gone forward, the information isn't readily available to the public.
I'm going to keep on watching this case for a
while to see if anything else might ooze out, but
(18:38):
I'm kind of doubtful. Too often trans folks cases, especially
those of trans black women, they're swept under the rug,
and even if there is some justice for the victim,
a lot of news media outlets won't report on it.
But we'll keep our eyes on it for a while,
just to see rest in power, vanity for our sunshine today. Well,
(19:03):
it's not really a good news story or a fun
coming out story, but it is a really good way
to look at what gender dysphoria is and might fill
to a person who is trans. I found this answer
from a non trans person on the CORR website, and
I love the empathetic way the person described it. They said,
(19:26):
assume you were born with a penis and you happily
enjoyed living life as a male. Now imagine that every
day people insisted on calling you miss or ma'am. Imagine
you had to wear dresses and keep your hair long.
Imagine everyone calling you janine. Imagine having breasts and hating them.
(19:47):
Imagine this stuff happening to you every single day, all
hours of the day. You'd hate it, right, And that
makes sense because you're a dude, the very lucky to
have been born in a body that matches your brain's
gender identity. Your gender identity is in your brain, not
(20:09):
in your pants. If you lost your male genitals and
grew breasts, do you think you would suddenly become a woman.
Of course not, You're a dude. Your brain knows you're
a dude. You'd still want to dress like a man
and act like a man and use a male name.
I assume you'd agree that mental illness exists, and that
(20:33):
the brain is far from perfect, that depression, psychosis, OCD
and other brain anomalies exist, that sometimes our brains don't
do what we want it to do. That's what it's
like for trans people. I suspect they wish that their
brain would identify with the gender matching their genitals and
(20:55):
their secondary sex characteristics. No one chooses to be mocked, hated,
and even killed because their brain gender identity isn't what
other people think it should be. Do you know how
many trans people commit suicide each year because they can't transition.
(21:17):
Maybe their parents have threatened to disown them for being trans.
Maybe they live in a country where being trans is illegal.
Maybe they're afraid of all the people who hate and
mock them because they're trans. I wouldn't wish gender dysphoria
on my worst enemy. Some people whom I love Desmitherines
(21:38):
are trans. I fully support them living their best life
as their brain gender. Nobody asks for gender dysphoria. Please
don't harass people for having a condition they didn't ask for.
Try to be accepting even if you still don't understand them.
Be supportive of their happiness, not harming you. Please don't
(22:02):
do them harm with unkind words or worse. Thank you.
I really like what that poster said. And as a
side note to this, once I told you all, I
was discussing gender dysphoria with a trans woman that I met,
and she told me not all trans people suffer from
gender dysphoria, and she was right. Non binary trans people
(22:25):
do not have gender dysphoria. And I'm still trying to
wrap my head around all that. But I do know
someone who fits in this category. This person was a
signed female at birth, calls themselves trans prefers. They them pronouns.
Maybe he also, but they've done nothing to change or
(22:47):
transition their gender over and they most likely never will.
They're in a relationship with a cisgendered man, and that's
fine as long as they're happy. I still struggle with
this concept, but that's on me, not them or anyone else.
Maybe someday I will reach out to them and see
if they can educate me further on the topic. Anyway,
(23:10):
I just felt that it was such an interesting post
and I wanted to share it with you all. One
brief bit of good news to end this episode. Germany
ban the use of Pride flags on their government buildings. No,
that's not the good news. The good news is at
the LGBTQ and allies in Germany. They're standing strong, with
(23:32):
over two hundred Pride events this year and lots of
visibility everywhere. Letting their rainbows fly flags are not good
job to the citizens of Germany. Stand strong, but please
just make sure you're safe about doing it. I love you, warriors.
(23:52):
You matter so very much. Remember it's not a crime
to be gay or to live your truth, unless sure
a murderer
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