Counsel Debate Validity of 2 Witnesses in Murder Trial

By D.C. Witness Staff - July 19, 2018
Court | Homicides | Suspects |

During closing arguments July 18, the defense and prosecution debated the validity of two witness testimonies that implicated the murder defendant. 

Kelby Gordon is charged with first-degree murder while armed for allegedly shooting Gabriel Carlos Turner on the 2600 block of Birney Place, SE in early 2016. According to the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Turner, 46, was shot in the back and the bullet traveled to his head.

The prosecution called two witnesses, the defendant’s ex-girlfriend and a cooperating witness who is awaiting sentencing for an unrelated second-degree murder conviction. The witnesses said Gordon, 32, confessed to shooting someone during a robbery gone wrong.

The prosecutor said that despite the fact that the witnesses never met, both gave the same story. Both said Gordon saw the money, acted on impulse, shot an innocent man, had a Glock pistol and ran to his ex-girlfriend’s apartment.

“He tried to rob someone and it went wrong,” the ex-girlfriend said. She apparently told police that Gordon saw the decedent with cash and wanted to take it.  

The prosecutor showed the surveillance video of the shooting and pointed out how the victim is shot in the back and instantly collapses while the shooter runs away. Several cameras follow Gordon’s flight path to the apartment where his ex-girlfriend lived.

“The only one with a gun behind Gabriel Turner, the only one behind him period is Kelby Gordon,” the prosecution told the jury.

The prosecutor said this was not a case of mistaken identity as the defense argued. “The path that law enforcement took, led them straight to the defendant (Gordon),” she said.

During his closing statement, Defense Attorney Richard Holliday repeated the case’s lack of forensic evidence.

Holliday said the government is relying on two witnesses, one who is fabricating a story to get a lighter sentence and the other to receive witness protection benefits. The ex-girlfriend, “ended up making a lot of lemonade out of some really bitter lemons,” Holliday said. 

Although there is video that clearly shows two shooters, “you will never know conclusively who shot the fatal shot,” he said.

The jury is scheduled to deliberate on July 19.