Prosecutors continued to question an investigative analyst from the US Attorney’s Office who compiled a dataset of six co-defendants’ Instagram accounts and messages before DC Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz on June 17.
Erwin Dubose, 31, Kamar Queen, 28, Damonta Thompson, 28, and William Johnson-Lee, 22, are charged with conspiracy, premeditated first-degree murder while armed, assault with intent to kill while armed, assault with significant bodily injury while armed, among other charges, for their alleged involvement in the mass shooting that killed 31-year-old Donnetta Dyson, 24-year-old Keenan Braxton, and 37-year-old Johnny Joyner. The incident occurred on the 600 block of Longfellow Street, NW on Sept. 4, 2021, and injured three additional individuals.
Mussay Rezene, 32, and Toyia Johnson, 53, are charged with accessory after the fact while armed and tampering with physical evidence for their alleged involvement in assisting the defendants in discarding evidence and avoiding arrest.
The analyst walked the jury through Instagram messages among the defendants from the months leading up to the incident that showed a very close relationship in particular, and a particularly intimate relationship between Dubose and Johnson.
“Love you bruh,” and “love you more,” messages were sent between the defendants on multiple occasions and shown to the jurors.
On Aug. 28, 2021, Dubose allegedly sent multiple messages confirming his possession of a rental car given to him by his then-partner Johnson.
In cross examination the witness clarified the investigation of the Instagram messages was conducted solely with guidance from the prosecution. He was provided with key word search terms from the prosecution and did not do any searches beyond them.
Some of the provided key words included “drake,” “master plan,” “rental(s),” and “phone numbers.” Elizabeth Weller, Thompson’s defense attorney, pointed out that the prosecution did not include the phrase “I love you” in their key word searches despite it showing up on 587 pages of the more than 40,000 page document.
In their redirect, the prosecution clarified that the witness was not involved in any other part of the investigation and was only able to conduct his analysis by being provided the key words to search for.
Parties are slated to reconvene on June 18.
