Judge Orders Defense to Return Shell Casings to Prosecution

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At the request of a prosecutor, a DC Superior Court judge order a defense attorney to return 33 items of evidence, including 6 shell casings to the prosecution so that they could conduct more testing. Wilbert Whitaker, 70, is charged with first-degree murder while armed for allegedly shooting 30-year-old Leo Hackett on the 800 block of 21st Street, NE on May 2, 2016. A prosecutor said she filed an emergency petition for a transfer of evidence after defense attorney, Mani Golzari, failed to respond to three emails she sent requesting that the evidence be returned. Golzari said the prosecution failed to explain why the evidence needed to be returned in their emails, calling their behavior “cryptic. The defense has been in possession of the evidence for three months and it “doesn’t make sense” that testing is taking so long, according to the prosecutor. The prosecutor said she is only interested in testing the shell casings and that she did not anticipate conducting DNA testing. “If anything it would just be firearms testing,” said the prosecutor. Judge Todd Edelman said he was “not really that interested” in what happened with the transfer of evidence up until now but ordered that all 33 items be returned before Dec. 27. During the same hearing, the prosecution raised concerns that Golzari would seek a continuance for the trial which Judge Edelman scheduled to begin on Feb. 3, 2020. D.C. Witness previously reported that the prosecution raised similar concerns in October. Golzari said he still has no plans to seek a continence, despite having two other trials scheduled shortly before Whitaker’s trial is scheduled to begin. Follow this case