transgender teen who murdered her family in 2016 was sentenced to 40 years

5years ago

Two years ago on Halloween, a 17-years-old teen, murdered both her parents and pet dog, Andrea Balcer, who turned 20 Monday, was sentenced Tuesday at the Capital Judicial Center to 40 years in prison.

andrea claimed that she killed her parents due to her struggle as a transgender She was born Andrew T. Balcer but now identifies as a woman.

Balcer stabbed her mother nine times in the back with a hunting knife at about 1 a.m. Oct. 31, 2016, She stabbed her father after he came to the bedroom to investigate his wife's screams Andrea dragged the corpse of her father to the kitchen leaving a trail of blood on the route, and then killed the family's pet Chihuahua to stop it from barking,her older brother was at the house at the time but escaped the slaying .

A defense attorney argued that at the time of the killings Balcer was grappling with a transition from male to female in isolation and without family support. She had no criminal record before the attacks in Winthrop, about 84 miles southwest of Bangor.

her older brother Christopher Balcer said the defendant's excuses were "flimsy" and urged the judge to be firm.

"In my view, all leniency does is put a remorseless murderer back on the street," he said.

according to family and friends the parents, Alice and Antonio Balcer, were loving and supportive to both of their children.

Andrea's uncle Carl Pierce, said the suggestion that gender identity, abuse or lack of family support played a role as an "insult to our family, an insult to our society and an insult to the LGBTQ community."

"There was no hatred. There was no malice. There was no ill will. There was resignation to be sure but ultimately there was acceptance," he said.

At her sentencing hearing, Balcer asked her remaining family members to forgive her.

"I do not speak today to beg for leniency or to try to save myself from due punishment. I'm here only to ask for one thing, the forgiveness of my family," she said.

Balcer was treated as an adult in court proceedings, and she pleaded guilty under an agreement that capped her sentence at 55 years.

the judge declined to take into account her struggles with gender identity in imposing the sentence. The judge said other transgender people struggle with societal and family acceptance, and that it shouldn't be used as an excuse for her actions.