A convicted murderer from Columbia has died, the Illinois Department of Corrections confirmed last week with the Republic-Times.

An IDOC official said Jordan C. Kuykendall, 33, most recently an inmate of Logan Correctional Center who identified as a female named Sora, died Jan. 12 “at an outside hospital.” No other information was provided by the IDOC on the inmate’s passing. 

Kuykendall’s most recent status on the IDOC website prior to death was listed as “medical furlough.” 

Kuykendall was serving a 40-year prison term after pleading “guilty but mentally ill” in November 2014 to a charge of first-degree murder in the June 27, 2013 stabbing death of 17-year-old former girlfriend Erin Schneider inside the home he lived in with his brother on South Riebeling Street in Columbia. 

Kuykendall was supposed to appear in court on the day of the murder after Schneider had obtained an emergency order of protection against him. 

Shortly after Schneider was killed, Kuykendall was injured when the vehicle he was driving slammed head-on into another vehicle on Route 158 between Columbia and Millstadt.

Kuykendall was initially incarcerated at Menard Correctional Center in Chester to serve the 40-year sentence, but soon informed prison staff he had transitioned to a female named Sora.

Following a class action suit filed in January 2018 by the American Civil Liberties Union involving Kuykendall and five other transgender Illinois inmates, the IDOC was court ordered to improve its treatment and handling of this type of inmate.

This initial suit, Monroe v. Rauner, had accused then-governor Bruce Rauner and the IDOC of “cruel and unusual punishment” – an Eighth Amendment violation – for unfair treatment.

In August 2021, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Rosenstengel said the IDOC had not sufficiently improved on this matter despite the initial court ruling.

In her ruling, Rosenstengel ordered IDOC officials to immediately ensure the plaintiffs are only treated by medical staff and mental health professionals who have taken transgender health training, provide plaintiffs with access to gender affirming items, provide hormone therapy, allow plaintiffs to choose the gender of the correctional officer conducting any bodily search, and transfer plaintiffs to a facility matching their expressed gender.

This legal action resulted in Kuykendall being transferred from Menard – the state’s largest maximum security adult male facility – to the all-female Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln.