DC Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz denied a carjacking defendant’s motion to overturn his conviction based on ineffective representation on April 18.
Marquise Lucas, 26, was convicted of conspiracy to commit a crime of violence, unarmed carjacking, and three counts of armed robbery with an imitation pistol, for his involvement in an incident that occurred on the 900 block of Florida Avenue, NW on Feb. 12, 2015. He appeared remotely from a federal Bureau of Prisons (BoP) facility.
According to court documents, Lucas was engaged in a robbery and carjacking of a BMW at a gas station. The stolen vehicle was pursued by officers from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) before it collided with another vehicle and those involved were detained.
Lucas was sentenced to 14 years of incarceration in December 2015.
Lucas filed a motion to vacate his conviction on Dec. 3, 2023. He alleged that his Public Defender Service (PDS) trial counsel, Michael Carter, is related to one of the victims in the 2015 carjacking and was, therefore, ineffective in representing him.
Lucas’ current attorney, Andrew Ain, argued, in addition, Lucas’ prior defense team failed to order a timely psychological evaluation, despite his documented history of mental health struggles.
Ain called on a former junior counsel lawyer, leshaah Murphy, who defended Lucas, to testify. Murphy explained that had she been aware of Lucas’ previous suicide attempts earlier, she would have sought an evaluation sooner. She only learned of the issue a few months before sentencing, which, she argued, left insufficient for an accurate assessment.
Ain asserted this oversight in documentation constituted ineffective representation, as critical information was present in Lucas’ mental health records but overlooked by his previous attorneys. Furthermore, Ain stated that the absence of a psychological evaluation at sentencing disadvantaged the court.
Judge Kravitz, however, found that Lucas’ former counsel’s performance was not deficient. He acknowledged that although the defense’s actions were “imperfect,” they requested a psychological evaluation and worked with the resources they had.
No further dates have been set for this matter.
