Trial scheduled for transgender woman charged in 3 slayings

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) _ Trial is scheduled to begin this week in Spokane for a 65-year-old transgender woman who is charged in the serial killings of three prostitutes nearly three decades ago.

Donna R. Perry used to be known as Douglas R. Perry before a 2000 gender reassignment surgery.

The Spokesman-Review says the three victims were shot some four months apart in 1990. Perry is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the killing of 26-year-old Yolanda A. Sapp, 34-year-old Nickie I. Lowe, and 38-year-old Kathy A. Brisbois.

The cases were on a list of unsolved homicides until 2012, when Perry was convicted in federal court for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Her DNA was entered into a national database and linked to the victims.