All but one witness corroborate stories in the Delonte Wynn trial

By D.C. Witness Staff - June 21, 2017
Court | Homicides | Suspects |

As the trial for Delonte Wynn continued Tuesday, the courtroom’s seats filled to the brim with family and spectators.

Attorneys began Tuesday morning, arguing over the legitimacy of witness Chester Taplette’s testimony. After deciding that everything was admissible in court, Judge Bush assured the defense that if the prosecution used Taplette’s words in their closing statement the issue could be reconsidered.

A main focus of the prosecution’s argument has revolved around a text thread between Wynn, his child’s mother, and Bryant. An expert witness helped to identify messages from Bryant that may have been purposefully deleted by Wynn, but the defense argues Wynn deleted messages on a regular basis from many people.

Charles King has been brought up on numerous occasions in previous testimonies, but his role as a witness has been unknown to the jury until Tuesday when he took the stand. On May 13, the witness passed Wynn as he walked in ahead of him on the sidewalk, heading for the Geraldine Apartments. From his view, King said it was difficult to see if a mask covered Wynn’s face. Shortly after following Wynn into the apartment building and parting ways, though, did the witness see an assumed-to-be Wynn walking back down the stairs. King claims that he knew it was Wynn because his clothes were the same as before, with the exception of a new accessory – the mask.

King sat in shackles and an orange jumpsuit as he spoke to the jury. The defense accused King of saying whatever needed to be said to convict Wynn and receive a shorter sentence since he had previously been caught on record lying in court. King denied all allegations of corroborating the same story with Howard, and of receiving a bribe. In the end, the prosecution went so far as to review the agreement that had been made, to reassure the jury of King’s story.

The final witness called by the prosecution was Travis Barton, the homicide detective in charge of the case. When he arrived at the scene of the crime on May 13, Barton testified he saw none of the witnesses mentioned other than the suspect, who was spotted in the parking lot behind the Geraldine Apartments. Since the day of Bryant’s death, he has personally talked to all witnesses, and all of those able to identified Wynn from a photo line-up.

On Tuesday morning the defense expressed concern that the jurors may not be able to focus due to the heat, questioning their ability to come to a fully-informed verdict. Wynn’s trial will resume Wednesday morning.