Jury Finds Defendant Guilty of 1st Degree Murder

By D.C. Witness Staff - August 9, 2018
Court | Featured | Homicides | Suspects |

After deliberating for less than a day, a jury found Aug. 9 a defendant guilty of first-degree murder while armed, among other charges.

Sean Green was convicted of fatally shooting Derrick Black on the 3300 block of Georgia Avenue, NW in 2015. Black, 24, fell in the street after being shot and was subsequently run over by a car. The incident was captured by a security camera.

The defendant was also found guilty of assault with intent to kill, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and unlawful possession of a firearm with a prior felony.

During opening statements, prosecutors called attention to the physical evidence that linked Green, 27, to the crime scene. Green’s DNA was found on a gun-magazine recovered near the location where Black was killed.

According to court documents, the magazine had the capacity to hold ten cartridges, but only three cartridges were still inside the magazine when it was recovered. A forensic analyst said seven of the eight shell casings he received for examination were ejected from the same gun.

Green’s cell phone was also found on the scene.

According to Green’s defense attorney Steven Kiersh, several witnesses were not reliable. He said one witness was high on K2, a synthetic drug, on the night of the murder.

Also, witnesses gave various descriptions of the shooter. Some witnesses said the man who killed Black was thin and had long dreadlocks, however, Green is not thin and has short hair, Kiersh said.  Another witness, a Metrobus driver, said the shooter had a medium build and did not have dreadlocks.

Kiersh also asked the jury to disregard the statements Green made during his initial interview with Metropolitan Police Department detectives. He emphasized that Green is “rambling and mumbling and cursing” when he is alone in the interrogation room. Green told detectives he was confused. Finally, Kiersh said Green had a “closed head injury” from a 2006 car accident that impaired his mental faculties.

The prosecution spent days of the trial playing hour-long chunks of Green’s interview with MPD detectives. During the footage, Green initially said he could not have committed the murder because he was being treated at the Clean and Sober Streets program on the night Black was killed.

However, the director of the Clean and Sober Streets program said Green did not start the program until Aug. 10,  2015, nearly a week after the homicide. The director said Green was not enrolled in the program at any point in July of 2015.

“You can’t get around the fact that your DNA is on that piece of evidence,” the detective said. “That camera caught the shooting. We see you brother, we see you. But you can help yourself by telling us what happened.”

Green then asked if there was any way he could secure a “pardon” for providing information on Black’s real killer. He also asked if he could be an informant for the MPD.

“That’s not how this works,” the detective said.

Green then switched gears and admitted to pulling the trigger, but said a person named Mike-Mike gave him a gun and forced him to kill Black.

Soon after, a woman entered the interrogation room while no detectives were present. She and Green hugged, and Green told her he knew who really killed Black. The woman encouraged him to “snitch.”

After the woman left and the detective returned, Green said he actually did not kill Black, and that the real killer was named “Man-Man.”

Green’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 2.