A King County judge ruled Wednesday that jurors in Andre Karlow’s hate crime trial will not hear a recorded jail call in which the defendant allegedly expressed hatred toward transgender people, despite testimony from a second transgender victim who described a separate attack.
Prosecutors wanted to introduce the recording, in which Karlow allegedly said “If I didn’t hate trans people before, I do now” and “I think Trump should kill them, get them out of here.” The judge determined the evidence would not be presented to the jury deciding whether Karlow’s March 2025 attack on a transgender woman in the University District constituted a hate crime.
The trial Wednesday included testimony from Lexi Young, who described her own encounter with Karlow while working as a Sound Transit fare ambassador in 2024. Young said she approached Karlow to verify his fare at a light rail station when he responded with a slur. “He said, ‘You need to put some bass in your voice boy or else you sound like a f——,'” Young testified.
Young later spoke about the emotional impact of the confrontation. “I was dismayed, I was appalled, I was saddened. It really hit me to my core. It scared me that it was the same person who did it to me to do it again.” Her testimony establishes a pattern of behavior prosecutors hope will demonstrate Karlow’s bias against transgender individuals.
Karlow was convicted of assaulting Young in a previous trial, though the jury deadlocked on the hate crime enhancement in that case. The current trial focuses on whether Karlow’s University District attack, which left the victim with a swollen black eye, fractured teeth, and a brain bleed, was motivated by bias against her transgender identity. His defense attorneys argue the violence stemmed from other factors unrelated to the victim’s gender identity.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday. The judge’s decision to exclude the jail call removes what prosecutors likely viewed as direct evidence of Karlow’s animosity. The jury must now weigh testimony from two victims describing similar attacks alongside Karlow’s defense that bias played no role in the violence.
