By ABBY SIMONS, Star Tribune
January 21, 2011
Friends say Krissy Bates was gregarious and kind, someone who would chat up a stranger at the bus stop. A transgender woman, she never tried to hide who she was, they said.
And when she told her good friend Scottie Thornton about the new man in her life, she said things were going so great that she thought he might be "The One."
There was even talk of him moving in with her, Thornton said.
That man, Arnold Darwin Waukazo, 40, of Blaine, was charged Friday with killing Christopher (Krissy) Bates, 45, whose body was discovered stabbed and strangled last week in her first-floor apartment on the edge of downtown.
But Waukazo's name wasn't mentioned Friday night as Thornton and about 200 others gathered in downtown Minneapolis to honor Bates, a woman almost all of them didn't know. To them, Bates' death represented not only a loss to those who loved her, but to the entire gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community.
"The emotions we feel have a more deeply personal feeling because this is the killing of one of our own community," said Barbara Satin of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "Her death brings with it an increased sense of vulnerability."
And also a sense of empowerment, the nine speakers told the crowd that spilled out of a room at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Afterward they walked four blocks in freezing air to Bates' apartment at 1302 Linden Av., where they laid flowers at the door.
According to the second-degree murder charges filed Friday, a caretaker checked on Bates after friends hadn't heard from her. Police found a blood-stained knife in the apartment and a half-empty bottle of brandy with a receipt from Haskell's Liquor store in downtown Minneapolis. Police looked at store surveillance footage and saw a man later identified as Waukazo buying the liquor.
Police also spoke with a friend of Bates' who said she recently began dating a man named "Arnie" whom she met online. He lived and worked in Blaine, the friend said.
On Wednesday, police confronted Waukazo at his workplace. He allegedly said he began dating Bates early this month, and he admitted he bought the bottle of liquor and went to her apartment. He said they had an argument and he "dispatched" Bates by strangling her with his hands, the criminal complaint said.
He allegedly moved her body to the floor and saw it "jump." He told police he did not want her to "come back," so he took a folding knife from a hutch and stabbed Bates several times, according to the charges.
He took Bates' laptop computer and keys, left the apartment and threw both away later, the charges say.
After his arrest, Waukazo also told detectives he struck Bates several times in the ribs, according to the charges.
Bates' cause of death was complex homicidal violence, with four stab wounds to the torso and one to the left side of the neck. The victim also had broken ribs, and the hyoid bone in her throat was loosened, a sign of strangulation, the criminal complaint said.
Feared for her own safety
Friends say Bates had recently moved to Minneapolis from Kentucky shortly after the death of her father. Bates posted online advertisements on the website Backpage.com advertising massage therapy and transsexual escort services, calling herself a "Classy and sassy southern belle."
Neighbor Bryant DeVine said last week that Bates was concerned about security in the apartment, feared for her safety and had asked for protection. Thornton said he got to know Bates before she moved to Minneapolis, and they were good friends since. He said she recently had been sexually assaulted and was working with police and OutFront Minnesota to try to make sure something was done about it.
Despite the hardships she faced, Bates was a free spirit, Thornton said.
First and foremost, she was always there for those she loved, he said. And there were many. "As you often said to me, 'I love you, girl. You know that, right?'" Thornton said.
Abby Simons • 612-673-4921
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