Family Members Ask for Harsher Sentence for Double Homicide

By D.C. Witness Staff - February 20, 2020
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects | Victims |

A judge allowed family members of two victims to speak at a sentencing, pleading for greater punishment for a murder defendant. 

Davon Payton, who is also known as Davon Raynard Peyton, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, attempt to commit robbery while armed, and arson in an unrelated incident. On Oct. 9, 2019, Payton, 30, allegedly shot 24-year-old Devon Miller and 27 year-old Lekelefac Fonge at the 1600 block of Rosedale Street, NE. Miller and Fonge were pronounced dead on the scene.

DC Superior Court Judge Craig Iscoe opened the sentencing by asking for victim impact statements from friends and family of the decedent.

D.C. Witness previously reported that a courthouse brawl occurred between the families of the victims and the defendant at a previous preliminary hearing. DC Superior Court Judge Craig Iscoe saw to it that the families remained separate in the courtroom. 

“All I can say was that my nephew was innocent, and they were doing nothing to the person that came into my mother’s house and just totally took their lives for nothing,” the an aunt of one of the victim’s said. “For me, I feel like he needs life, for two people, he didn’t just kill one person.” 

Marshals had to step in to escort a member from the courtroom who became vocal and shouted profanities. He was sitting with the defendant’s family. 

“It was not easy for the family back home, receiving him in a box,” one of the family members said. “Someone whose human goals were all about human kind. I pray that nobody in your family, not even you, should go through that,” the family member told Payton.  

While attorney, Jeffrey D. Stein, who was standing in for Payton’s defense attorney Judith Pipe, was speaking on the defendant’s behalf, Payton stood up and walked toward the door where the holding cells are located. The Marshals followed him and after a brief moment, Payton was brought back to the courtroom.

“I apologize for what you all are going through, I can’t change anything. I take responsibility,” Payton’s stepfather told the judge and everyone who was present during the sentencing.

When discussing how the victim’s families displayed their emotions, Judge Iscoe said that he has presided over a lot of criminal cases, and he has never seen more raw emotion in a sentencing than this. 

Judge Iscoe sentenced Payton to 24 years in prison for both counts of second-degree murder followed by five years of supervised release. He was also sentenced to 5 years in prison for attempt to commit robbery while armed and arson followed by three years of supervised release. Payton will serve the sentences concurrently and register as a gun offender.

The defense requested Payton be held in a New Jersey prison to retain proximity to his family. 

Written by Wyatt Mullins and Corrine Simon