DC Judge Declares A Mistrial

By D.C. Witness Staff - July 26, 2018
Court | Homicides | Suspects |

On July 26, after four days of jury deliberations, a DC Superior Court judge declared a mistrial for a 2016 murder after a two-day deadlock.

Paul Swann and Traveous Brown are charged with the murder of Adam Barker on the 2700 block of Langston Place, SE.  According to court documents, Brown, 28; Swann, 24; and another individual engaged in a verbal argument with Barker, 21, before the shooting. Barker initially implicated the men in his uncle’s murder trial. 

On June 14, Brown pled guilty to second-degree murder while armed for Barker’s death. Swann is charged with first-degree murder while armed and unlawful possession of a firearm due to a prior conviction. 

Despite pleading guilty, Brown denied killing Barker. He also incriminated Swann during his testimony.

During Brown’s testimony, defense counsel, Mani Golzari, accused Brown of being an unreliable witness because Brown did not tell the truth about using drugs or hitting his daughter.

Brown was not the only supposedly unreliable witness. The defense accused another eyewitness of being “untruthful” during his testimony because the witness said he saw Swann commit the murder but did not mention Swann’s face tattoos.

The witness also denied using a criminal justice database called JUSTIS, which keeps records of offenders, to research Swann. However, the defense provided login information for the database that indicated that the witness used it to find the victim before making a formal identification of the suspect to detectives.

The defense maintained their position, saying that Brown was the shooter based on his blue shoes, which were seen in a surveillance video.  

However, despite witness testimonies and the surveillance video of the suspect with blue shoes, the prosecution said they believed there was enough evidence to convict Swann “beyond a shadow of doubt.” 

Evidence included cell phone data which placed Brown and Swann near the scene of the crime and text messages between Brown, Swann and the third individual that specifically told the individual “not to snitch.”

Swann is scheduled for a status hearing on Aug. 10.