An Onondaga County, New York grand jury has ruled the murder of a transgender woman was motivated by hate, possibly adding 5 years to the murderer's prison sentence, News 10 Now reports.

Twenty-two-year-old Latiesha Green was killed on November 14, a Friday, sitting in a car parked outside a friend's Syracuse 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 [Latiesha Green] in the chest area.”

Mark Cannon, 18, managed to drive the car to the family's home.

Prosecutors argued that DeLee intentionally killed Green based on her sexual orientation. DeLee was found guilty of second-degree murder as a hate crime, second-degree murder (without the added hate crime), and criminal possession of a weapon. He has not been sentenced.

County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick announced the conviction on Friday, adding that it was the county's first prosecution of a homicide using the 9-year-old hate crime law based on the victim's sexual orientation.

Second-degree murder in New York carries a minimum penalty of 15 years to life in prison. A hate crime conviction adds 5 years to the minimum, Fitzpatrick said. The maximum sentence in either case is 25 years to life.

DeLee was nabbed two days after the shooting, on a Sunday. At the time, Miguel told reporters: “Our suspect took a rifle and shot and killed this person, wounding also his brother, for the sole purpose that he didn't care for the sexual preference of our victim,” then added, “And isn't that sad?”

Gay and lesbian community leaders called the conviction as a hate crime a victory.

“I think it is a victory because I don't think there has been a hate crime prosecution [on the grounds of sexual orientation] ever in this county,” Andrea L. Jaehnig, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center at Syracuse University, told Syracuse.com. “It recognizes this person was targeted because of their being different.”