911 Caller Testifies to Conspiracy in Homicide Trial 

By Natalie Goodman [former] , Natalie Tarby [former] - October 18, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

During an Oct. 17 jury trial, prosecutors called several witnesses to help clarify how a defendant allegedly aided their co-defendant in a 2017 double-homicide.

Derek Turner, 31, and his co-defendant Ronnika Jennings, 44, are charged with first-degree murder while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, and conspiracy in connection with the shooting of 28-year-old Andrew McPhatter on March 5, 2017, on the 3500 block of Wheeler Road, SE. Jennings is specifically accused of sharing information with Turner during her time working as a clerk for the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). 

The third co-defendant Duan Hill, 33, is charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice. 

Turner is also charged with first-degree murder while armed for allegedly shooting 23-year-old Devin Hall on Jan. 7, 2017, on the 3500 block of 6th Street, SE.

Jennings is specifically accused of sharing information with Turner during her time working as a clerk for the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). 

The first witness, who worked at Mark43, a company that allows law enforcement agencies to view and edit official police reports, said he oversaw the team responsible for auditing those records, and for manually transferring them into a permanent storage system.

The witness explained that Mark43 had designed a records management system called Cobalt, which only MPD officers could access, and detailed how the system worked.

According to the witness, the Cobalt system would update each time a new MPD officer made an edit. However, the program’s History feature allowed users to find precisely when a certain field was edited, and redact any subsequent content. 

In the records shown to the jury, Jennings’ and Turners’ names and information were redacted from the ‘Suspects’ fields after Jennings initially viewed the records. 

During cross-examination, Jennings’ defense attorneys, Alvin Thomas and Russell Hairston, confirmed through the witness that there wasn’t anything showing that Jennings edited or added anything to a document, and that the witness could only tell Jennings viewed them.

The witness also confirmed to Turner’s defense attorney, Michael Madden, that exporting documents appeared to be a part of Jennings’ job.  

Prosecution then called to the stand an MPD Sergeant who works in Internal Affairs and oversaw the investigation into Jennings.

The prosecutor showed the witness the Cobalt audit reports and asked him to read aloud the dates and times Jennings made a search related to Turner’s case. “They (the searches) were all consistent with the  shift she was assigned to,” the witness said.  

Thomas, during cross-examination, asked if it was possible someone came into the police station and asked for the reports. “Did you check the cameras at the seventh district to see if anyone came in to ask Mrs. Jennings to run the reports?”

The witness said he did not.

Prosecutors then made the argument that even if someone asked Jennings for the report, she did not have the authority to view the reports internal packet.

A woman who called 911 said heard gunshots while she was doing the dishes. “The first thing that caught my attention was loud music, and I thought oh my god here we go again.”

The witness said she then looked outside and saw an unknown man standing outside of his car when he turned around “as if somebody had called his name,” then a second vehicle pulled up and gunshots went off. 

The witness added that she saw smoke coming out of the passenger side of the second vehicle. When the prosecutor asked the witness how she felt during the shooting, she replied that she felt “pissed because it was happening too often.” 

Turner and Jennings’ attorneys cross-examined the 911 caller; reiterating that her view from her house was obstructed by a fence, she couldn’t see who was in the second car, and couldn’t see a gun at all. 

DC Superior Court Judge Marisa Demeo scheduled the trial to resume on Oct.18.