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By
Jeff Levine
- October 18, 2024
Daily Stories
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Homicides
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Juveniles
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Suspects
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Victims
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In a trial’s third month, prosecutors meticulously built their case against two of the five juveniles accused in a beating homicide by attempting to turn their own words against them.
The incriminating evidence presented on Oct. 17, was a series of Instagram posts prosecutors say was both an acknowledgment of the crime and an attempt to cover it up.
The girls aged 12-to-15 at the time are charged with first-degree murder and assault with a dangerous weapon for their alleged involvement in the fatal beating of 64-year-old Reggie Brown.
The incident occurred late at night on Oct. 17, 2023 on the 6200 block of Georgia Avenue, NW. In previous testimony a 15-year-old defendant, who has accepted a plea in the case, acknowledged the girls left home with the expressed purpose of beating someone up because they were bored.
On large screens in DC Superior Court Judge Kendra Briggs’ courtroom, the prosecutor asked the lead detective to illustrate how he obtained a warrant to search social media accounts of the suspects who were identified through an earlier investigation.
With information recovered from the suspects phones the detective said he was able to match up the suspects to their alternate user accounts’ names.
One message read in court said, “[D]elete da murder video”–an apparent reference to a 55 second cell phone clip allegedly taken by a defendant documenting and celebrating the brutal attack. In the sequence a lifeless Brown is repeatedly kicked and stomped in the head, which was bruised and bloodied to the point of being unrecognizable.
Another post read, “We is going to get locked up.”
Throughout the proceeding Charlotte Gilliland, who is representing a charged 14-year-old, vigorously objected to the messages as inadmissible hearsay.
“There is no evidence that the statements made here were in furtherance of a conspiracy,” said Gilliland.
However, Judge Briggs said earlier, “There is some evidence of conspiracy outside of hearsay,” overruling defense objections.
“We’re allowing statements of penal interest,” said Judge Briggs – a reference to the admission of self-incriminating evidence that is assumed to be true by its nature.
In posts the prosecution says were made two days after the murder, a screen shot depicts a news story about the event.
The exchange read, “We is going to get locked up.”
“We on the news?”
“Again?”
“Lordt.”
Earlier in the proceeding, the prosecution played a video of a police interview with a 14-year-old defendant that took place shortly after the murder.
The lead detective said the girl’s mother had reached out to him for help in the matter. During the interview, the defendant claims she was threatened to commit the beating by a man in a blue coat, who testimony indicates instigated the crime but was never caught.
“There was no threat made that [the girl] described,” said the lead detective.
“I’m still in shock,” the 14-year-old girl is heard to say. “Me and my other friends are still in shock.”
However, she continued, according to the interview, “They were kicking and stomping…I started crying.”
The trial is scheduled to resume on Oct. 22.