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By
D.C. Witness Staff
- April 3, 2019
Court
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Daily Stories
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Homicides
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Suspects
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During opening arguments in a murder trial, the prosecution said a defendant was responsible for “not one, but two murders.” However, the defense said the prosecution’s case relies on unreliable testimonies from unreliable witnesses.
Devaun Drayton
Terik McLeod is charged with two counts of first-degree murder while armed for his alleged role in the deaths of 17-year-old Devaun Drayton and 23-year-old Carlton Fisher in 2004 and 2006, respectively.
Carlton Fisher
The prosecution told the jury April 3 that McLeod shot and killed Drayton over a “missing gun.” According to the prosecutor, three days before he was killed, Drayton had just gotten out of a group home and was looking for a gun. Apparently, Drayton was concerned about an incident that occurred in the group home.
The prosecutor said Drayton and McLeod are linked because Drayton asked for the gun that was supposed to be sold to McLeod. Apparently, the individual who would’ve sold the gun to McLeod let Drayton borrow the gun, first. But, Drayton didn’t return the gun because he said he lost it.
The prosecution said the gun wasn’t lost.
Shortly after saying the gun was missing, a group of individuals including Drayton, McLeod and the gun seller were walking and smoking near a high school. The prosecution said that is when McLeod shot Drayton in the back of the head.
Apparently, in the following days McLeod asked Fisher for bullets and when Fisher asked him whether he had anything to do with Drayton’s death he said, “I had to get him before he got me.”
The prosecution said Fisher was arrested nearly a month later after being caught with marijuana and a gun. It was then that Fisher told police what he knew about McLeod. Fisher later went to jail and served two years. The prosecution said McLeod shot and killed Fisher two months after he was released from prison.
The prosecutor said a witness overheard McLeod say, “ I put his brains all over his mailbox,” referring to Fisher, who was shot in front of his apartment building.
The prosecutor also said they recovered a gun that was “compatible” with the bullets used in both murders. However, he said his ballistic expert couldn’t say definitively if the gun was a “match.”
Meanwhile, the defense sought to poke holes in the prosecution’s case.
While defense attorney Michael Madden didn’t provide an alibi for his client, he said the prosecution’s “star witness,” one of the people that claim they were a part of the group walking and smoking near the high school, is unreliable.
According to Madden, the witness is charged with an unrelated murder and is looking to reduce his sentence. Madden also said another witness says the “star” witness’ wasn’t in the group.
Madden said another witness, who was Fisher’s girlfriend, said she didn’t know who committed her boyfriend’s murder, but a decade later she told a grand jury that McLeod was responsible.
The trial is scheduled to resume April 4.