Parties debated a potential misrepresentation of evidence before DC Superior Court Judge Jason Park on April 3.
Joshua Allen, 36, is charged with first-degree premeditated murder while armed, assault with intent to kill while armed, aggravated assault knowingly while armed, three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, carrying a pistol without a license, and unlawful possession of a firearm during a prior crime of violence. The charges stem from his alleged involvement in the fatal shooting of Delonte Johnson, 28, and non-life threatening injuries to another person on June 11, 2021 on the 4600 block of Hillside Road, SE.
Parties addressed a motion filed by defense attorney Sara Kopecki on Feb. 13 to dismiss the case against Allen due to evidence inaccuracies the prosecution presented to the grand jury..
During the hearing, Kopecki claimed that the prosecutor assigned to the case during the grand jury hearing “deliberately” presented video evidence in a misleading way to try and get the grand jury to issue an indictment against Allen.
Kopecki focused on the timestamps on the video evidence shown to the grand jury, saying they were inaccurate and did not line up with the sequence of events the prosecution offered to the grand jury.
The prosecution explained that while the timestamps did not align with the time of the events surrounding the incident, they were not altered or misrepresented in any way within the video evidence itself. The lead detective on the case testified before the grand jury and estimated that the video time was about ten minutes ahead of the real time, said prosecutors.
Kopecki questioned if the prosecution based their explanation on this estimate, saying that a “hunch” from the detective was not a solid enough basis to explain their argument. Judge Park urged her to move on from this line of questioning as he could not understand its relevance.
Kopecki also called Judge Park’s attention to inconsistent timestamps from a 911 call following a car crash after the shooting that allegedly also involved Allen. According to the arrest warrant, Allen allegedly fled the scene in a silver Mercedes and crashed three-to-four minutes after the shooting.
The prosecution asserted that these inconsistencies were due to a technical issue with the system that logged the 911 call and not a deliberate misrepresentation.
Parties also addressed the issue brought by Kopecki regarding the discrepancy between Allen’s appearance on the incident date and the description of the shooting suspect. Kopecki claimed that the clothing Allen was wearing that day did not align with witness descriptions of a suspect in a white or gray hoodie.
According to court records, there is photo evidence of a man Kopecki claims was Allen wearing a short sleeved shirt in addition to being a significant distance away from the site of the crash that led to the 911 call.
As a result, Judge Park decided the conversation related to Kopecki’s motion was not productive and moved to set a hearing for her to question the lead detective regarding his testimony about the timestamps.
Kopecki was also granted her request to bring in an expert witness from Ring Camera surveillance company to testify about its video technology used to record the shooter on the incident date.
Parties are slated to reconvene on April 15.
