Definition: In this task, you will be presented with a passage and have to answer a question based on your understanding of the events inferred from the passage. Try to find the best answer that is most likely to fill in "_". Note that the URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
Input: (CNN) A Mississippi man was sentenced to 49 years in prison Monday and fined $20,000 for killing his ex-girlfriend because she was transgender, the US Justice Department said. Joshua Vallum, 29, of Lucedale is the first person prosecuted for a federal hate crime in which the victim was targeted for being transgender, the Justice Department said in a news release. Vallum knew Mercedes Williamson was a transgender teenage girl when they began dating, but kept her gender identity secret, prosecutors said. They broke up in 2014 but Vallum decided to kill her in May 2015 because a friend had discovered she was transgender, the Justice Department said.Joshua Vallum pleaded guilty to killing his ex-girlfriendJustice Department: He killed because she was transgender 
 Question:He would not have killed _ if she was not transgender, he said.

Mercedes Williamson