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By
Alex Garcia Pecina [former]
- November 20, 2024
Daily Stories
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Homicides
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Shooting
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Suspects
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Victims
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DC Superior Court Judge Robert Okun denied a mistrial request and provided the jury with specific instructions regarding nuanced statements in the re-trial of a homicide case on Nov. 19.
Mark Beasley, 52, is charged with first-degree murder while armed and assault with the intent to kill while armed for his alleged involvement in the fatal shooting that killed Darryn Conte on the 400 block of Butternut Street, NW on April 26, 2015.
According to court documents, police responded to reports of gunshots when they found Conte, and his brother, with apparent bullet wounds. Though his brother was transported and treated for his wounds, Conte died by the time the police arrived.
This is Beasley’s second trial, after successfully appealing his first trial in which he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
In between closing arguments, Destiny Fullwood-Singh, Beasley’s defense attorney, asked for a mistrial because the prosecution argued to the jury that a witness had only spoken about Beasley once even though he knew Beasley was, “locked up since 2015,” when the witness actually testified that he knew Beasley was, “locked up in 2015.” In other words, the issue was about semantics–whether Beasley was jailed on a date certain, or imprisoned continuously since 2015.
The mistrial request came after arguments on Nov.18 over jury instructions and defense’s request to omit the fact that Beasley has been incarcerated since 2015.
The prosecution argued against a mistrial explaining that the issue was the conviction itself, not to reveal the term of incarceration and they were only trying to assess the witness’ credibility,
After Judge Okun denied the mistrial and Fullwood-Singh requested a strongly “curated” jury instruction as an alternative.
The prosecution did not oppose the idea and deferred to the court.
Judge Okun allowed the controversial statement with the caveat that there is no factual evidence presented to support it.
Parties are slated to reconvene after a verdict.