The jury deliberating on the killing of Lateisha Green, a transgender woman, returned a guilty verdict of manslaughter as a hate crime Friday, The Post-Standard reported.

Jurors found Dwight DeLee guilty of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime in the murder of Green outside a house party in Syracuse, New York last November.

But the six men and six women jury rejected the more serious charge of second-degree murder.

The jury took six hours over two days to decided that DeLee, 20, only intended to seriously injure and not kill Green. The additional hate crime count will add 5 years to the minimum sentence of 10 years to life in prison when judge William Walsh hands down his sentence on August 18. It is only the second hate crime conviction in the nation involving a transgender person. In May, Allen Andrade was convicted of beating 18-year-old Angie Zapata to death with a fire extinguisher in Colorado.

Twenty-two-year-old Lateisha Green was killed on November 14, a Friday, sitting in a car parked outside a friend's house. She, her openly gay brother Mark Cannon, and a third person were in the car while people in the home yelled gay slurs at them, police say.

“Dwight DeLee goes into the residence at 411 Seymour Street, returns with a 22 caliber rifle, puts the rifle to the driver's side window of that vehicle and fires one round,” said Syracuse Police Chief Gary Miguel. “And that one round strikes Mark Cannon in the arm, and continues on and strikes Moses Cannon [Lateisha Green] in the chest area.”

Mark Cannon, 18 at the time, managed to drive the car to the family's home for help.

Cannon was also the first to testify after lawyers delivered their opening arguments Monday afternoon, telling jurors about the night Green was shot. Two witnesses who told detectives they saw DeLee kill Green recanted their statements under testimony Tuesday. Other witnesses testified they heard men at the party using gay slurs to describe Green but not necessarily DeLee. Cannon fingered DeLee as the gunman in his testimony.

Prosecutors argued that DeLee attacked Green because he thought she was gay.

Green began living as a woman at the age of 16, and received a slash to the face from a high school peer for that decision, Green's aunt, Rhonda Gary, said at a press event before the trial's opening.

Gay rights groups appeared satisfied with the manslaughter verdict. Incoming Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) President Jarrett Barrios said in a statement: “Today's verdict brings justice for Lateisha Green, but it can never heal the immense loss her family has experienced.”

Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF), called on lawmakers to pass a transgender hate crimes bill held up in the Senate: “Despite this legal victory, transgender New Yorkers still face a serious risk of violence and discrimination. New York State law does not include gender identity or expression in its hate crime law and that sends a dangerous message that it is acceptable to leave part of our community vulnerable to hateful acts of violence simply because of who they are.”

“This verdict sends a strong message that hate violence will not be condoned,” Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said in a statement. “How many more like Lateisha Green must spill blood before our society says no to harassment, no to discrimination and no to violence against transgender people?”

“While no verdict will bring Lateisha Green back, justice was served today,” Rea added.