Judge Finds Probable Cause for Assault Defendant

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A DC Superior Court judge ruled that an assault with a dangerous weapon has enough evidence to go to trial.

Bernard Speight is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon for allegedly stabbing a victim on the 4900 block of Georgia Avenue, NW on July 23.

Speight’s co-defendant, Darryl Williams, is charged with assault with intent to commit armed robbery. However, his case was not heard during the Oct. 23 preliminary hearing, although that was originally the intention.

Williams, 53 is currently being held at DC Jail on a parole warrant. His attorney, Atiq Ahmed, said he has not been able to get in touch with his client but will try to do so again sometime next week.

The parties decided to proceed with Speight’s case anyway.

A Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) detective identified Speight, 35, from MPD Body Worn Camera (BWC) footage from July 23, the day of the incident.

The detective also testified that the victim picked out Speight from a nine-person photo array. The victim said he was “eight of ten” sure that was the person who cut him with a knife.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Stephen Logerfo asked the detective about the BWC footage, where an officer is talking to Speight. Speight is holding a knife that the officer checks out which has no blood on it. The detective confirms that this is true.

Logerfo used this point in his argument. There was a picture shown by the prosecution that showed the victim’s stomach exposed and bleeding while he was talking to the police.

“There’s a significant amount of blood from the picture,” said Logerfo. “He (Speight) was stopped close by and in a close amount of time to the incident and no blood was found on the knife.”

Judge Renee Raymond found probable cause from the description of the knife by the victim and the identification of the witness.

Speight will remain held at the DC Jail.

Judge Raymond scheduled a status conference for Nov. 2 for Ahmed to get updates on his client, with a potential preliminary hearing to be scheduled.

Since the case involved both defendants, Speight’s next status hearing will also be scheduled on Nov. 2.