Judge Finds Probable Cause for 2021 Homicide Case

By Isabelle Chiu [former] - July 26, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

After three days of preliminary hearings, DC Superior Court Judge Robert Okun found probable cause in a 2021 homicide case. 

Amard Jefferson, 23, is charged with second-degree murder while armed for allegedly shooting his girlfriend’s friend, 20-year-old Kendall Brown, on Aug. 7, 2021, on the 3000 block of Nelson Place, SE, where Jefferson resided with his girlfriend. According to court documents, the shooting occurred after a verbal altercation between Brown and Jefferson concerning some missing items. 

During her redirect of the lead detective on July 26, the prosecutor played portions of the detective’s interviews with two witnesses to clarify the detective’s testimony about his investigation and the events of the shooting. 

According to the first witness’s interview, Jefferson said he would “call [his] mans,” to which Brown responded, “we’re just females, we’re not here to fight.”

The second witness confirmed this statement in her interview with the detective and said she told the defendant’s girlfriend to calm Jefferson down. 

Jefferson’s defense attorney, Jason Clark, reiterated, during his re-cross, the first witness’s memory blackouts and her statement to the detective that there were “blanks” in her memory of the shooting. He also said Brown did not have her hands raised before getting shot. 

During her closing argument, the prosecutor emphasized the escalation of violence caused by the defendant. 

“One thing all parties can agree on, in this case, is that this was a shooting that never should have happened,” the prosecutor said. “It was the defendant’s gun that turned a girl’s tiff into a deadly shooting.”

The prosecutor also refuted the defense’s argument of self-defense and mitigating factors by replaying the video of Brown and two witnesses entering the apartment and asking Judge Okun to focus on the girls repeatedly telling the defendant’s girlfriend, “we’re not here to fight, no one’s going to do anything to you.” 

“Mere words, no matter how offensive, are never adequate provocation. Use of a firearm here was entirely out of proportion,” the prosecutor argued. 

In addition, the prosecutor argued the defendant’s actions after the shooting showed his consciousness of guilt.

According to the prosecutor, after shooting Brown, Jefferson and his girlfriend locked her in their apartment and escaped through the back door before Jefferson discarded his firearm in a drainage hole one block away. They then fled the District of Columbia to Maryland, at which point Jefferson texted his girlfriend telling her to tell the police she pulled the trigger out of self-defense. 

The prosecutor then addressed the witness biases Clark had elicited during his cross-examination of the detective, including the bias of the first witness who was standing near Brown when she was shot. Although Clark had pointed out the witness had suffered from memory blackouts and hallucinations on the day of the shooting, the prosecutor argued, “that is a young woman suffering from trauma who just saw her close friend get shot.”

“It is important for the court to evaluate the prosecution’s only witness, the detective,” Clark stated at the beginning of his closing argument. “The prosecution’s theory is built on guesswork based on the detective’s overt bias, which he put on display in front of the court.”

Clark continued to point out multiple discrepancies between the detective’s testimony and the recorded clips of witness interviews, including whether Brown had raised her arms above her head before she was shot or while she was shot, which, according to Clark, was “a small but critical detail that the detective deliberately changed to mislead this court.”

“What it all boils down to in this case is that no one saw what happened,” Clark said. “Not one witness can place the gun in Mr. Jefferson’s hands. He did what he thought was necessary to defend his girlfriend, her child, and himself.” 

Judge Okun found probable cause after hearing the parties’ arguments. 

“I think probable cause is easily met,” Judge Okun said. “There is no doubt in my mind that the defendant was the one who killed Ms. Brown.” 

Jefferson will continue to be detained at the DC Jail until his next court appearance scheduled for Oct. 5, by which point the prosecutor expects to have a formal indictment ready.