Anne Saker

asaker@enquirer.com

A West Price Hill man confessed to police that he shot and killed a transgender woman 18 months ago in Walnut Hills, and a Hamilton County judge will decide whether to allow the man’s videotaped statement to be used at his trial.

Quamar Edwards, 27, has been in the county jail since he turned himself in to police six days after he was charged with the June 26, 2014, slaying of Tiffany Edwards on Tuxedo Place. Though they share a last name, the two were not related.

Wednesday, Common Pleas Court Judge Megan Shanahan watched the first 10 minutes of the 55-minute video during a court hearing in which Quamar Edwards’ lawyers tried to show that the confession should not be brought into a trial. Shanahan scheduled a Feb. 11 hearing for arguments and a decision on the issue.

Tiffany Edwards, 28, is a transgender woman with a criminal record for solicitation. Quamar Edwards has a lengthy felony record, including prison terms for drug crimes. Twice in the past six months, defense lawyers have had their client examined to determine his fitness to stand trial, and two psychologists have found him competent.

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During Wednesday’s hearing, defense lawyer Scott Rubenstein questioned Detective Eric Karaguleff about Edwards’ capacity to confess. Rubenstein asked the detective whether he knew that Edwards has a history of learning difficulties, left school in 10th grade at age 18, had never been able to hold a job, had never been able to live on his own and had “a significant substance abuse issue.”

On the videotape, Edwards acknowledged that he was even then under the influence of marijuana as he gave his statement.

Karaguleff replied to the lawyer that he was unaware of Edwards’ problems and remarked, “If I had just turned myself in for murder, I might need to mellow out, too.”

“I felt he knew what was going on,” the detective said.

In the videotape, Karaguleff asked Edwards to explain what happened. Edwards said Tiffany Edwards flagged him down at Reading and Lincoln roads and asked him to take her over to Tuxedo Place, a short dead-end street overlooking Interstate 71. The area now is an EPA Superfund toxic-waste cleanup site.

“She asked me for a ride,” Edwards began.

“OK, you thought it was a she?” Karaguleff asked.

“No, I knew who it was,” Edwards replied. “She asked me for a ride. I gave her the ride. I went over on that street. I was going to trick with her, and then I’m like, nah, this ain’t right. I got in the car, she start talking crazy. ‘I’m gonna do this, this and that, you owe me some money, and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah,’ we start fightin’.”

The two got out of the car and started swinging at each other. One blow knocked Edwards’ wig from her head. “She still threatened me, and so I pulled out the gun,” Edwards said. “I ain’t trying to make it seem like I’m innocent ’cause I’m not. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I turned myself in.”

Edwards said he didn’t know why he pulled the trigger, except that he felt threatened. A deer camera mounted on a building on Tuxedo Place captured the crime, and when the detectives presented one frame of the scene, Edwards identified himself and his car.

“I was in shock,” he said. “I had never, ever, ever robbed nobody a day in my life.”

Edwards said he purchased the gun on the street because two months before, he himself had been shot while driving around with a prostitute in his car.

After he shot her, Edwards said that he drove to Alaska Avenue in Avondale and threw her empty purse from his car. Later, he drove over the Brent Spence Bridge toward Covington and tossed the gun into the Ohio River.

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