ABOVE: Jenny De Leon. Photo via Facebook.
TAMPA | The Tampa Police Department has charged Damien Rashard Marshall with the murder of Jenny De Leon, a 25-year-old transgender woman who was found dead late last year.
Officials opened a homicide investigation after finding De Leon in Tampa’s Sulfur Springs Nov. 2. Marshall has also been charged in the murder of Linda Harris, another woman whose body was found Sept. 27.
“Damien Marshall was developed as a person of interest in both homicide investigations,” TPD announced in a press release March 12. “Through surveillance, DNA and various investigative techniques, detectives developed probable cause to charge Marshall with the murders.”
Marshall, who is currently in jail, was arrested Nov. 16 for failure to register as a sex offender.
De Leon became the 46th known transgender or nonbinary person violently killed in 2021, a number that grew to at least 57. Area organizations reflected on her life before, during and after last year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance, hosting vigils and raising awareness about her death.
“There are no words for what Jenny was to me,” De Leon’s sister Iriss told Watermark at the time. “I want justice for her.”
De Leon had previously attended chapter meetings of PFLAG Tampa, which has offered LGBTQ-affirming support, education and advocacy to those in need throughout Tampa Bay for more than a decade. The organization described her as “an enigmatic, bright soul with enough energy to fill any room.”
According to pre-trial documents which Watermark cautions utilize De Leon’s deadname, Marshall has denied committing homicide. The suspect did admit to “engaging in sex acts … and being with the victim at the crime scene.”
Watermark reached out to Iriss De Leon, who confirmed TPD have reached out to her family. “It brings peace to me that they found this man, but that’s about it,” she says. “It doesn’t bring Jenny back!”
Marshall, 40, faces first-degree murder charges. A pretrial detention hearing in the State of Florida vs. Marshall is scheduled in Hillsborough County for March 18. The homicide investigations are ongoing.
