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By
Radhakund Ramnarine [former]
- December 20, 2024
Daily Stories
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Homicides
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Suspects
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Victims
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A homicide defendant accepted a plea deal extended by prosecutors before DC Superior Court Judge Michael O’Keefe on Oct. 10 and received a 12 year sentence on Dec 13.
On Oct. 10, Trevon Devore, 24, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter while armed for his involvement in the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Daqual Covington who was wounded eleven times on May 17, 2021, on the unit block of O Street, SW.
Devore also pleaded guilty to carrying a pistol without a license for an unrelated 2020 incident.
During the hearing, Covington’s aunt spoke to the court stating that not only was he “kind, dependable, and well thought of by his peers,” but “no parent should have to bury their child.”
Defense attorney Veronice Holt stated that “both Daqual and Trevon had guns, and the fact remains that they shouldn’t have.” She explained that although Devore was frightened, he should have never fired the gun.
“We are living in a society where many young men, especially minority men, who feel that they are championed by the use of a gun without thinking about the freedom that they would be giving up in exchange,” Holt said.
She requested that Devore be sentenced under the Youth Rehabilitation Act (YRA), which would seal the defendant’s conviction if he successfully completes all sentencing requirements. However court social services reported that Trevon was in a state of “pre-contemplation state of change.. In other words he still doesn’t get it, and he is still in the same condition he was in when he committed the crime… as it stands, anyone on that street could have been in the same predicament,” and declined the defense’s request for the YRA given the nature of the offense.
Devore was sentenced to 144 months incarceration with five years of supervised release for the manslaughter, and for the count of carrying a pistol without a license he was sentenced to 24 months with three years supervised probation. He will receive credit for time already served and sentences are to run consecutive to each other while the release will run concurrent with each other.