A Germantown, Md., man charged with the October 2015 shooting death of transgender woman Zella Ziona, 21, in an alley behind a Gaithersburg shopping mall was sentenced on Sept.
15 to 35 years in prison. The sentencing followed two trials in which Montgomery County prosecutors were unable to secure a conviction for Rico LeBlond, who was 20 at the time he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the case.
The first trial ended when the jury was unable to reach a verdict, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial. In the second trial, a jury found LeBlond guilty of first-degree murder and the judge in 2017 sentenced him to life in prison.