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By
D.C. Witness Staff
- March 1, 2018
Court
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Homicides
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Suspects
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Once again Derryck Decuir is standing trial for the alleged fatal shooting of a 15-year-old in Southeast D.C.. The first trial ended in a mistrial in March 2017.
Decuir, 25, is charged with first-degree murder while armed for allegedly fatally shooting Malek Mercer as he walked to a friend’s house from a bus stop on the 2800 block of 28th Street, SE.
On Feb. 28, the prosecution said Decuir murdered Mercer, who was a sophomore at Ballou High School, on June 16, 2015, because Decuir believed he needed to prove he was not a homosexual after his friends had taunted him for admiring Mercer’s belt.
The prosecution revisited the information presented in the first trial, placing an enlarged photo of Mercer, in front of the jury and showing footage from several surveillance videos from the buses that night.
During the night on June 15, 2015, Mercer was with friends “hanging out.” Mercer’s father lived in Southeast D.C. and his mother stayed in Clinton, Md., so the teen would usually stay in several different places, living like a “nomad” often with friends, the prosecution said.
On the night of his death, Mercer and the friend he was staying with escorted a third friend for a part of her way home. One the way back, the two ran into Decuir and two friends. The men were coming from a funeral ceremony for Decuir’s father.
Anthony Ryans, one of Decuir’s friends, was on parole at the time. He supposedly asked the boys if they had a cigarette and Decuir asked if the boys sold belts, admiring the red Versace belt and carrying a black duffle bag.
When the boys got to the bus, Decuir and his friends followed. Mercer was shot in the back of the neck almost immediately and died, from the wound, three days later. The prosecution noted that Decuir’s actual stop was more than a mile past where the shooting happened.
Although the defense agreed with most of the events, it claimed that Decuir was acting in self defense because Mercer was carrying a shotgun in his duffle bag. The defense argued self-defense was supported by the fact Decuir only fired once before running away, and said the police did not recover evidence of self defense because their investigation was sloppy.
On the first day of arguments the prosecution called nine witnesses, including Mercer’s mother, the friend who was with Mercer when he was killed, several police officers, a retired police officer and a technology specialist.
Mercer’s mother recalled texting her son before she went to sleep that night, and then being wakened by a phone call summoning her to Washington Hospital Center in Northwest D.C. She also noted, regarding the belt, that her son was very fashionable.
When Mercer’s friend took the stand, the recalled the events of that night but denied seeing or knowing that Mercer had a shotgun.
The police testified to items recovered from the crime scene including two gun casings, one from a shotgun and one from a 9-millimeter handgun, the duffle bag, and the belt, No shotgun at the murder scene.
The trial is scheduled to continue on March 1.