DC Superior Court Judge Jennifer Di Toro granted prosecutors a 45-day extension to secure an indictment against a shooting defendant on June 5, despite objections from the defense.
Derrick Carter, 33, is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and unlawful possession of a firearm with a prior conviction greater than a year. The charges stem from a non-fatal shooting incident on Dec. 2, 2025 on the 1400 block of Canal Street, SW. A shot was fired toward the victim but she wasn’t injured.
The 90-day deadline for prosecutors to secure an indictment against Carter lapsed on June 4, and the prosecutors filed a motion on June 3 asking to extend the deadline.
Carter’s attorney, Emma Mlyniec, argued that the prosecution should not be granted a deadline extension based on Carter’s Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. Prosecutors explained that they had not yet brought the case before a grand jury for an indictment because of a witness availability issue.
Judge Di Toro granted the motion for an extended deadline with the condition that the planned trial date of Aug. 7 would not move in order to protect Carter’s rights. The judge granted the prosecution a 45-day extension to obtain an indictment against Carter by July 19.
Mlyniec then requested that he be released from jail until the prosecution secures an indictment.
Judge Di Toro denied that motion on the grounds that the indictment extension does not violate Carter’s right to a speedy trial since he has the same trial date.
The defense also made Judge Di Toro aware of some evidentiary issues they had as a part of the discovery process.
Mlyniec stated that she was waiting on the prosecution to hand over any previous criminal complaints made against the victim in Carter’s case. Under Giglio vs. United States, any evidence which discredits a witness in a case could prove the defendant’s innocence, and the prosecution must hand such evidence over to the defence in the discovery process.
The prosecutor responded that the defense’s discovery requests regarding the victim had been too broad up to that point, and also that previous criminal complaints against the victim were themselves not Giglio material.
Mlyniec also stated that she had received footage from one body-worn camera in Carter’s arrest but not from a second camera. The prosecutor responded that footage from only one body-worn camera existed, and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) had deleted the footage from the other camera in the arrest pursuant to their evidence retention policies.
Mlyniec said the defense team intended to file a motion to dismiss based on failure to preserve evidence.
The defense also had an issue with the ShotSpotter report from the night of the incident. According to Mlyniec, when ShotSpotter detected the noise allegedly from Carter’s gun, it didn’t initially label it as gunfire, but later someone manually changed the report to indicate that it had in fact picked up gunfire from the incident address.
The prosecutor denied knowing anything about any changes to the ShotSpotter report.
Parties are scheduled to reconvene July 17 for a felony status conference, two days before the new indictment deadline.
