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A transgender inmate convicted of killing her parents and the family dog on Halloween 2016 has been moved from the Maine State Prison to the women’s section of the Maine Correctional Institute, according to the Maine Department of Corrections inmate locator.
Andrea Balcer, 24, of Winthrop is serving a 40-year sentence on two counts of intentional or knowing murder and one count of aggravated cruelty to animals. She pleaded guilty to the crimes.
It is the policy of the prison system to allow inmates to live as the gender they identify with after they have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and a team that includes medical personnel and other staff determine it is in the best interest of the inmate to be reclassified.
It took Balcer nearly four years to complete that process. She was moved in late November, according to the department.
Information about what treatment Balcer may be receiving is not public under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA.
Balcer told psychologists after her arrest that she did not believe her parents would be supportive of her identifying as a woman and that triggered the slayings, according to testimony at a court hearing.
Balcer was about six weeks shy of her 18th birthday when she stabbed her mother and father, Alice and Antonio Balcer, to death along with the dog who was barking during the crimes, according to court documents. District Court Judge Eric Walker ruled in November 2017 that Balcer should be tried as an adult rather than as a juvenile.
Arrested shortly after she called 911 to report the slayings, Balcer lived as a female at Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland, according to court testimony. Once Walker ordered Balcer be tried as an adult, she was moved to Kennebec County Jail where she was classified as male.
That classification continued when Balcer entered the prison system after being sentenced in December 2018 at the Capital Judicial Center, according to previous postings on the inmate locator site.
Balcer faced a minimum of 25 years in prison but could not be sentenced to life under Maine law because she was a juvenile when she killed her parents. Her earliest possible release date after earning good time is July 5, 2051, when she will be 52 years old.
