Dana Rivers guilty: Oakland jury takes less than a day to return triple-murder verdict

Dana Rivers, 67, of San Jose, murdered Charlotte Reed, 56, her wife Patricia Wright, 57, and Wright’s 19-year-old son, Benny Toto Diambu-Wright, the jury found.

OAKLAND — An Alameda County jury convicted a San Jose transgender activist of murdering three family members inside their Oakland home after less than a full day of deliberations.

Dana Rivers, 67, of San Jose, murdered Charlotte Reed, 56, her wife Patricia Wright, 57, and Wright’s 19-year-old son, Benny Toto Diambu-Wright, on Oct. 11, 2016, the jury found. Now, the case has moved on to the sanity phase — set to start Dec. 5 — where the same jury will rule whether Rivers was legally insane at the time of the murders. If so, state law dictates she’s(sic) sent to a mental hospital until she’s(sic) cured and/or for as long as she’d(sic) serve in prison for a triple murder conviction.

The evidence against Rivers was hard to refute; when police arrived at the victims’ home on Dunbar Avenue in Oakland, Rivers was standing outside, drenched in the victims’ blood, having just gotten onto a motorcycle containing one of at least three murder weapons. Prosecutors alleged she(sic) shot and stabbed Reed and Wright, then shot Diambu-Wright when he came to investigate what was happening. Diambu-Wright staggered outside the home and collapsed, dead, in the middle of the street.

Before her arrest, Rivers was best known as a schoolteacher who became an international news story when she(sic) came out as transgender to her students in a high school in Antelope, Calif. She(sic) was subsequently fired for sharing details of her transition, then sued the district and received $150,000 in a settlement. In the aftermath, she(sic) became an activist for transgender rights, and ultimately moved to the Bay Area to restart her(sic) life as an educator.

Source: Dana Rivers guilty: Oakland jury takes less than a day to return triple-murder verdict

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