Eyewitness to Shooting Testifies in 2020 Teen Homicide Case

By McKenna Bryant , Anthoine Godin - February 28, 2024
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

On Feb. 27, two witnesses testified before DC Superior Court Judge Rainey Brandt in connection to a 2020 homicide case.

Koran Jackson, 23, Tyiion Kyree Freeman, 24, and Stephen Nelson, 22, are three of five individuals charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, assault with the intent to kill while armed, first-degree murder while armed, carrying a pistol without a license, and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence in connection to the fatal shooting of 13-year-old Malachi Lukes on March 1, 2020 on the 600 block of S Street, NW. The shooting also left a second juvenile victim located in the vicinity suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to the right leg. 

The prosecution called an eyewitness to testify on the events leading up to Lukes’ homicide. 

They presented an image of Lukes’ taken Christmas 2019 to the witness. The witness turned and looked away. After hesitating to identify Luke’s, he later confirmed the person was Lukes.

At that point, Lukes’ mother became emotional and rushed out of  the courtroom. She later returned. 

The witness explained it was not easy for him to talk about the incident “because my friend died.” He had known Lukes since elementary school.

Prosecution presented an additional photograph exhibit to the witness, where he identified himself, Lukes’ and two other friends in a store before the incident. 

Unable to recall why the group was in a store, the prosecution played video surveillance footage of four juveniles asking an employee for a basketball. Then the witness explained that in order to get to the basketball court, they had to walk through an alley.

The witness stated that he was unable to recall what happened in the alley. 

After the prosecution presented the police interview transcript from the day of the incident, and his grand jury testimony from July 2021, the witness’ memory still wasn’t reminded about the events that took place in the alley. The witness stated he was “reading lines on paper,” rather than remembering on his own.

The prosecution admitted his interview with an officer from March 2020 into evidence. The video was previously adopted as part of his testimony in the grand jury.

In the video, the witness explained to an officer that while the friends were walking down the alley, he heard a car door open and then gunshots. “I wasn’t looking back, I heard the door close, I took off running,” the witness said. 

Later in the interview, the witness explained that he was not aware of any neighborhood feuds. According to his grand jury testimony, the witness admitted that he had learned about feuds in the area.

However, when the witness was presented with the portion of his transcript of his grand jury testimony in court discussing neighborhood feuds, he exclaimed “Do you have a video of me saying that?… I never said that”. 

In his grand jury testimony, the witness stated he knew of Tahlil Byrd, known as rapper “NW Goon”, who was shot and killed on the 600 block of S Street, NW on Sept. 29, 2019. During trial testimony, the witness did not recall the individual or the shooting.

The prosecution showed screenshots of a message exchange between the witness and an unnamed individual from social media from Oct. 2019. 

In the exchange, the witness was asked to remove an image from his story, which depicted the mention of a neighborhood gang or “crew.”

During his testimony, the witness attempted to plead to the Fifth Amendment to protect against self-incrimination regarding his responses to the messages. Judge Brandt denied the request and to confirm he was a part of the message exchange.

The image was a screenshot from a music video of a rapper from the 9th Street area, where an individual was holding up a hoodie that said “9th Street Compound.” The witness was allegedly identified in the image.

Before cross examination, the witness was asked what significance the photo had to him. The witness claimed “it didn’t mean nothing.” 

In his cross examination, Freeman’s defense attorney, Andrew Ain, asked the witness about where Lukes was living at the time of the shooting. 

Because the witness did not recall, Ain used the witness’ grand jury testimony transcript to establish that, while Lukes was not living on 9th Street at the time of the shooting, he had previously resided in the area. 

Turning to the rap video, Ain asked the witness if he was in the videos because it was “a fun thing to do with your friends,” to which the witness agreed. 

Jackson’s defense attorney, Brian McDaniel, asked the witness if Lukes was also in rap videos from 9th Street. The witness did not recall if Lukes participated in any videos. 

McDaniel then asked the witness if he had seen any individuals or distinctive vehicles during the shooting. The witness testified that he had only looked back after the shots and he saw his friend collapse. 

“I started crying,” testified the witness as he explained how he and another eyewitness went back and tried to help Lukes up before the police arrived. The witness testified to having been handcuffed with his friends when police arrived. 

McDaniel revisited the Oct. 2019 messages which included the witness and asked why he had posted the photo. The witness restated that he had “posted it just to post it,” and that he decides what to post on his account. 

McDaniel then asked where the rapper that the witness had testified about in the grand jury had been shot. The witness explained that the rapper had died on 6th Street, NW, which he claims was not associated with the so-called 9th Street Crew. 

Before ending cross examination, McDaniel asked if the witness recognized Jackson. The witness did not. 

According to the witness’s grand jury testimony, Byrd died on the same street as Lukes did.

The prosecution’s next witness was an employee of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) who testified the validity of three CCTV street video recordings as well as the records on the database those recordings were stored as collections of metadata. The witness affirmed that all three videos had a correct date and an operational camera to the best of his knowledge. 

In cross examination, Ain asked about where metadata was stored in 2020 and where it is stored now. The witness admitted that the data had been transferred along with records of who had pulled that data since 2020. 

According to the witness, only the prosecution is granted access to the database, and it is their responsibility to share it with the other parties.  . 

Trial is set to resume Feb. 28.