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By
D.C. Witness Staff
- November 15, 2017
Court
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Homicides
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Suspects
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The day Cimerron Kennedy was set to head to trial for the murder charge against him, his case was dismissed.
“You’re free to go,” Judge Zoe Bush told him.
Kennedy, charged with the murder of Eric Jones, had been held in jail since his arrest in 2015.
On Oct. 22, 2015, Jones was stabbed and killed in a nightclub called the Layla Lounge in the 500 block of Morse Street, NE. Less than two months later, 24-year-old Kennedy was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
Kennedy, who pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, was offered a plea deal in September of 2016, which he declined. During one of the hearings before his indictment, Kennedy’s attorney argued for drug therapy instead of continuing custody after revealing that PCP had been in his system the night of the stabbing. Judge Pan denied this request.
More than two years after the stabbing, Kennedy was set to begin trial on Nov. 13, when his defense requested his case be dismissed on the account of “Brady” violations. A Brady violation is when a prosecutor does not disclose information to the defense that is critical to the defendant’s case. Kennedy’s defense had requested an evidentiary hearing to discuss the extent of the government’s violations, but was not prepared to proceed with the hearing on Monday. A motion hearing was scheduled for Tuesday to have this discussion.
As family and friends of Jones were sitting in court to hear what would happen to the case, the government declined to proceed with the hearing and requested to dismiss the charge without prejudice. While requesting the dismissal, prosecutor Christine Macey admitted that the government had made “mistakes” that were “unintended.”
Kennedy’s case was then formally dismissed.