A Murder Trial’s ‘Critical Witness’ is Missing

By D.C. Witness Staff - April 24, 2019
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects |

The day before a murder trial was slated to resume, the prosecution notified the court that they were still missing a key witness after weeks of searching.

Derryck Decuir is charged with first-degree murder while armed for his alleged involvement in the shooting death of Malek Dayvon Mercer on the 2800 block of 28th Street, SE. Decuir, 26, has been tried twice before. Both trials resulted in mistrials after the juries could not come to a unanimous decision regarding Decuir’s murder charge.

Apparently, the missing witness testified in both of Decuir’s previous trials.

Amid the defense’s rebuttals, DC Superior Court Judge Craig Iscoe said he was satisfied with the prosecution’s search efforts and proposed that an oral recording of the witness’s testimony, along with the transcript, be used during the current trial.

The audio was released to counsel for review.

The prosecution said attempts were made to reach out to the witness, along with his family and friends, but they were unable to locate the witness. Apparently, the witness did not show up to a meeting with his probation officer and has been missing since.

The prosecution said marshals made an effort to locate the witness and even followed up on leads in Bennettsville, S.C. where the witness was allegedly residing.

The prosecution deemed the witness “unavailable” and requested to introduce a transcript of the witness’s previous testimony to the jury.

The defense, however, said the prosecution started searching for their “critical witness” too late and did not take all of the appropriate steps to locate him. 

D.C. Witness previously reported that the prosecution was missing six witnesses prior to the trial. As of April 9, the prosecution said that three of the six had been located.