A victim who was stabbed four times testified during a trial before DC Superior Court Judge Juliet McKenna on March 24.
Darryl Myers, 52, is charged with assault with intent to kill while armed, aggravated assault knowingly while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with significant bodily injury while armed, misdemeanor sex abuse, and simple assault for his alleged involvement in a stabbing on June 7, 2024, in Dupont Circle. One individual sustained four stab wounds to the neck, back, and leg. Myers allegedly sexually assaulted another victim.
“I got that mother f*****r,” Myers yelled as he fled the scene, claimed prosecutors in opening statements. “The scene in which one victim was sexually abused, and another was stabbed repeatedly in the neck, back, leg, and thigh,” elaborated the prosecutor.
Prosecutors continued by describing the timeline of the incident and how the two victims went to Dupont Circle to hangout. At the circle, prosecutors said Myers approached them yelling, “You don’t know what to do with that white butt, give me that white butt.”
As Myers got closer, the victims began to panic and tried to de-escalate the situation. Despite their attempt at de-escalation, one victim ended up sexually assaulted and “frozen in fear”, and the other victim stabbed numerous times.
After the stabbing victim was transported to the hospital, he quickly identified the perpetrator. Prosecutors believed that there was, “absolutely no room for doubt.”
Hannah Shankman, Myers’ attorney, asserted there were too many “questions, inconsistencies, and unknowns” regarding this case for prosecutors to push the “guilty narrative.”
“The [prosecution’s] story is flawed, and there is not enough evidence to prove Darryl Myers’ guilt,” Shankman asserted to the jurors.
Prosecutors called the sexual assault victim to testify. She told the court that she and the stabbing victim started their night at a jazz bar having a few drinks and a light dinner before they biked to Dupont Circle to hangout. At Dupont Circle, the victim said they had a few more drinks and sat around the fountain talking.
As the two of them sat in the grass they heard a man yell, “you ain’t gonna f*** this white b**** in my park.” The victim recalled giggling as a reaction to the fear she felt. Then, she stood up and walked toward the sidewalk when she felt a presence on her butt.
“His touch was in between a light touch and a slap, but it was deliberate,” the victim recalled as prosecutors asked her about being touched that night. The next thing she remembered was turning around to get to the sidewalk and seeing the suspect and her friend in a stand off before they were both rustling on the ground.
She told the court that she stood there, “frozen in fear,” as she thought her friend was being beat up.
“He got me,” was the next thing the victim remembered hearing her friend say as the suspect ran away and her friend tried to get up. Her friend was limping and holding his neck, soaked in blood, the victim described. She helped her friend get on his bike so he could ride home and get help.
“I thought my friend was going to die,” recalled the victim.
Lauren Rennecker, another one of Myers’ attorneys, cross-examined the witness and asked the victim how much she drank that night, in which she answered, “ a martini, a tequila shot, and three-to-four beers.”
After the stabbing victim went to the hospital, Rennecker noted that the assault victim told police the suspect was “six two in height, bald, Black man, wearing a running shirt and shorts.”
Rennecker questioned her description because during prosecutors questioning, the victim testified that the defendant was wearing a gray shirt and jeans.
The victim confirmed that she previously said the suspect wore shorts.
Prosecutors asked the assault victim whether testifying was hard, she said it was extremely difficult, “because it was extremely traumatic, I thought my friend was going to die.”
Prosecutors then called the stabbing victim who recalled meeting his friend at a jazz bar for dinner and drinks before riding bikes around town and ending up at Dupont Circle. The stabbing victim reiterated his friend’s testimony about having a few more drinks at the circle and hanging out.
While they sat in the grass facing the fountain, the victim said he and his friend heard a man’s voice from the trees. The suspect said, “you don’t know what to do with that white butt, give me that white butt,” according to the victim.
After hearing this voice, the victim became more alert and told his friend to get up and go to his bike so they could leave. As he began to stand up, the suspect started yelling and calling him the n-word saying, “don’t you get up.”
“I felt like he was watching and waiting to take action,” the stabbing victim testified.
The stabbing victim recalled seeing the suspect grab his friend by the neck and smack her butt. Then, the victim said he pulled his friend by the wrist and told her “go to my bike.” He remembered as she was getting to the bike, the suspect punched him out of nowhere. The victim then punched and kicked the suspect asking, “why are you doing this?”
The next thing he remembered was being on the ground and trying to get the suspect in a headlock to control him. The suspect freed his arms and swung at the victim.
“I felt him hitting me, not knowing each hit was him stabbing me,” the victim told the court.
The last stab was to his hip which made his “leg shoot straight out.” In that moment, the victim said he knew he was stabbed, he pushed the suspect off of him, and yelled, “OH HE GOT ME.”
Then, the victim said he went home, blacked out, and “thought this was the end.”
Prosecutors showed body-worn camera footage from a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer entering the victim’s hospital room, asking if Myers was the suspect who stabbed him. The victim identified Myers in a photo on the officer’s phone and said, “that’s him, I don’t know him but he assaulted my friend and attacked me.”
As a result of time constraints, the defense will cross-examine the stabbing victim when parties reconvene the next day.
The prosecutors also called an eyewitness who was in Dupont Circle at the time because he was homeless at the time and often slept there. When the eyewitness arrived at the circle he saw two men rolling around in the grass and then heard a loud “OHHH AHHH,” after that, the man on top started to flee.
As the man was fleeing the scene the eyewitness heard him say, “I got him good, I got that mother f*****r real good.” The eyewitness felt like the individual “almost got a big rush from” whatever had just occurred.
Parties are scheduled to reconvene on March 25.
