Chynal Lindsey 

Charges have been dropped in one murder of a Dallas transgender woman and the trial has begun in another.

Charges against Angelo Walker have been dropped in the 2020 Merci Mack murder in Oak Cliff. But the trial of Ruben Alvarado, 24, has begun for the 2019 murder of Chynal Lindsey whose body was found in White Rock Lake.

Lindsey, 26, was severely beaten and choked to death. When her body was found, there was a belt wrapped around her neck. Her murder occurred within weeks of the death of Muhlaysia Booker.

The defense attorney misgendered Lindsey and continued to misgender her even after the prosecutor told jurors he would refer to her as a woman.

The first witness in the case was Calvin Torrence, who found the body while he was at White Rock with his two children.

The prosecution linked Lindsey and Alvarado through cell phone records. They had communicated a number of times before the day of the murder. On the day of the murder, their cell phones were near each other.

The defense will argue that while the cell phones may have been near each other, that doesn’t prove the two were with each other.

In the Merci Mack murder, police claimed Walker killed Merci over a video she was going to share on social media.

But police had a description of the murderer and Walker just didn’t fit the description. Prosecutors filed the request to dismiss the case and State District Judge Tammy Kemp signed the order.

David Taffet