Judge Orders Additional Seven-Years Jail Time for Fatal Cellmate Beating

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On June 23, DC Superior Court Judge Maribeth Raffinan sentenced Marcel Jackson, 36, to seven-years confinement and five-years supervised release for his involvement in a DC Jail killing.

Jackson was originally charged with second-degree murder for allegedly killing his DC Jail cellmate, 37-year-old Sean Lee on May 15, 2022, on the 1900 block of D Street, SE. On March 30, he pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Lee’s killing. Lee was assumed to have overdosed prior to autopsy reports detailing lacerations on his neck and blunt force trauma causing severe bleeding and death.

At the time of the incident, Jackson was already serving a 10-and-a-half year term for another voluntary manslaughter incident that occurred on May 8, 2022. The new charges will be added onto to Jackson’s existing jail time.

The prosecutor read a letter addressed to the court from Lee’s mother, describing the intense pain and sorrow in her life since her son’s death. She explained her frustration towards the corrections department for its lack of protection.

Lee’s mother lamented “a loss of trust and faith in the judicial system” regarding her son’s being placed with an individual she described as mentally sick and previously violent.

She also claimed that not only did Jackson take Lee’s life, but the killing led Lee’s father to his demise shortly afterwards from what she claims was heartbreak.

After hearing the defense and prosecution’s memorandums, Judge Raffinan spoke directly to Jackson saying “Understand and learn from your mistakes in the past, so in the future this type of conduct does not occur.”

Judge Raffinan took into consideration Jackson’s lengthy history of criminal activity, mental illness, and substance abuse in determining the sentence.

Jackson will serve this sentence at either a federal medical center or a high-security U.S. penitentiary to have access to better behavioral health services following the completion of the additional felony charge.