Tampa – A 17-year-old Tampa resident will spend the next 25 years in prison for the attempted murder of a transgender woman earlier this year. Taveres Spencer was convicted of attempted first-degree murder in late October. On Dec. 6, a judge handed down a 25-year sentence.
The trial in October featured the testimony of Spencer’s victim, Terrence “Coko” McDonald, who detailed the shooting.
“As I was still lying on the ground, he walked around me, and he pointed the gun, and then he shot me,” McDonald testified.
According to investigators who testified at the trial, McDonald and Spencer met at a party and exchanged phone numbers. They exchanged several flirtatious text messages before McDonald shared that she was transgender.
Police say the pair met near a home on Willie Street in Tampa early in the year, where state prosecutors said a struggle ensued and Spencer knocked down McDonald and fired one shot at her.
“I lost my breath, and then something came over me, and I got up, and I started running the best I could,” McDonald testified in October.
According to the defense, Spencer wasn’t sure Coko was serious about being transgender.
“He was planning to have sex with Coko,” public defender Paul Figueroa said.
In addition to attempted murder, Spencer was convicted of robbery with a firearm, attempted 2nd-degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated battery.