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Albert Cannon, left, and sister Callie Cannon hold a framed photo of Lateisha "Teish" Green, who was killed after a hate crime in 2008.

(Patrick Lohmann | Syracuse.com)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Albert Cannon suffered two strokes years ago, so while he understands everything said around him, he can often only reply with quick bursts of a few words.

When his sister, Callie Cannon, speaks of the Halloween costume her transgender niece wore in her early teens - that of a drag queen - he laughs loudly and shouts, "That's right!". When she talks about Lateisha "Teish" Green's past hopes to spread a message of love and acceptance to other queer teens, he affirms, "That's my girl".

And when it comes time to talk about Green's untimely murder, how she was shot in the chest eight years ago by a man wielding a shotgun, a man who had just called her and her gay brother "f**king f****ts," he bows his head.

"Hatred," he says sitting on his front porch on Arthur Street near a memorial that still marks the place Green died. "Hatred."

A memorial is still maintained on Arthur Street in Syracuse where Lateisha Green died in 2008. Green death lead to Onondaga County's first hate crime conviction.

Green's killing in 2008 led to Onondaga County's first hate-crime conviction and New York state's first hate-crime conviction involving a transgendered victim. Her death was a rallying call for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community whose member called for ending the violence and hatred directed at them.

This week's deadliest mass shooting in the country's history that killed 49 people at a gay club in Orlando touched Green's family and reminded them of her murder. It also reminded them of the hate Green endured before her death.

"It's terrible if you can't live your own life. Look at what happened in Orlando," Callie Cannon said. "Tiesh didn't bother no one. Just to kill her like that, it's a shame."

Green's alleged killer, Dwight Delee, 27, walked out of jail a free man in November 2014 due to a mistake made in the trial that overturned his 25-year sentence on a manslaughter and hate-crime conviction. This week he was re-indicted on the same charges.

Change and discrimination

The family often alternates between calling Green "him" and "her", having known Moses Cannon, Green's name at birth, as the young boy who eschewed basketball for dolls, wore penny-loafers instead of sneakers and borrowed his older sister's clothing. Then, at age 16, Green wrote her parents a letter, coming out as transgender and asking to be considered a girl.

Green poses in this undated portrait provided by her family. A scar is visible on the right side of her nose where, at age 18, a man cut her with a knife when he realized she was transgender, family said.

Her change in 2002 was greeted warmly by family members, Cannon said, though they feared what society might do to her. She said she remembered how, growing up in Alabama, the Cannon family always welcomed white neighborhood kids to the dinner table. She said racial discrimination and transgender discrimination are two sides of the same coin.

Green was immediately taunted by boys at school, often getting in fights. She got in a fist fight at the cafeteria at age 16, siblings said, and she never returned to school.

She then worked to become a private hairdresser and advocated for equality for gay and transgender people before her death. At age 18, a man cut her face with a knife after learning she was transgender, Cannon said, resulting in a scar visible in pictures provided by family.

"He walked all the way home with all that blood," Cannon said. "They picked on him. They called him all kinds of stuff. It's a type of evil when kids tell you that stuff."

That type of evil would visit Green again, four years later.

'It burned and burned and burned'

On Nov. 14, 2008, Green and her brother, Mark, who is gay, got a call from a friend to swing by a home on Seymour Street before going out to celebrate a friend's birthday, Mark "Patience" Cannon said in an interview Thursday morning.

Green and Mark Cannon arrived at the home and a man approached them with a shotgun. Cannon believes the friend set them up, Cannon said, though he's unsure why.

"Get the f**k out of here, f**king f****ts," Delee shouted at them, Cannon said, before firing into the car. The blast struck Green in the chest and Cannon in the arm.

"It burned and burned and burned," Mark Cannon said.

Instead of the hospital, Green demanded Cannon drive them home to Arthur Street, a 13-block drive. Callie Cannon, their aunt, said she watched from the porch as her niece came home, bleeding badly.

Green collapsed in the street. Family called an ambulance, which quickly arrived and attempted to revive Green. Despite CPR and the use of a defibrillator, Green died in the street in front of the porch, Callie Cannon said.

A memorial with flowers and an anti-violence sign still sit under a tree a few feet from where she died.

Delayed justice

Dwight Delee, 27, was arrested and charged. He was convicted by a jury in 2009 of manslaughter as a hate crime and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

But apparent confusion among the jury led DeLee's conviction to be overturned on appeal. The jury foreperson said later that the panel believed DeLee was guilty, but didn't realize it needed to convict him of another charge, too, prosecutors have indicated.

Syracuse man Dwight DeLee, above, was convicted of manslaughter as a hate crime in the murder of Lateisha "Teish" Green, a transgender woman, in 2009.

That split verdict was ruled "inconsistent" in an appeal that went all the way to the state's highest court. The Court of Appeals acknowledged that jurors were probably confused by Judge William Walsh's instructions, leading to the faulty verdict.

The high court allowed prosecutors to retry the case. That was more than two years ago.

While free, DeLee got into more trouble: his car insurance lapsed, leading to a confrontation with police officers earlier this year.

Police stopped him in March on Tallman Street for not using a turn signal, according to records. But because his insurance had lapsed, they decided to tow the vehicle.

DeLee began to fight officers, punching at least two of them, police said. He was recently indicted on felony assault, misdemeanor resisting arrest, a violation of harassment and traffic violations.

On June 8, a prosecutor read the new indictment on the hate-crime manslaughter charge against DeLee. County Court Judge Anthony Aloi ordered DeLee held with no bail.

The trial will begin again. If convicted, DeLee faces a maximum of 25 years in prison. The hate-crime component of the charge raises the minimum possible sentence upon conviction from 5 years to 7 1/2 years.

Given that DeLee was sentenced to the maximum 25 years after his first conviction, it's likely he'll face a similar sentence if convicted again.

He's due back to court June 20 for a report on who his lawyer might be. He was represented by lawyer Charles Keller, but it's not certain that Keller will be able to remain with the case.

The indictment, while appreciated by Green's family, came a few weeks late for her mother.

Roxanne Green, 56, died May 16 after a short illness, still deeply angry over the injustice of seeing Delee walk a free man, unaware that he might again face the consequences of shooting her.

"I'm glad there's justice - even though his mother isn't here to see it," Callie Cannon said. "She never got a chance to see this going to trial again."