Judge Orders Prosecutor to Turn Over Names of Potential Eyewitnesses

By Graham Krewinghaus [former] - September 29, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

The prosecutor admitted she did not interview several potential eyewitnesses to a homicide during a Sept. 29 status hearing. DC Superior Court Judge Rainey Brandt ordered that she give the names of those witnesses to the defense.

On April 19, 2019, Demetrius Void, 35, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder while armed in connection with the shooting death of 24-year-old Anthony Lawson on Sept. 25, 2018, on the 6200 block of Eastern Avenue NE. Lawson and Void were allegedly having a dispute over a gold Chevy Impala that belonged to Void’s mother, according to court records.

In the hearing on Thursday, defense attorneys Matthew Davies and Will Alley requested that the prosecutor turn over the names and contact information of all her witnesses. Several of these witnesses were at the gas station where the confrontation began, which was within sight of a bus stop where the shooting occurred.

“I’m not going to order the government to disclose its witnesses 11 months in advance of the trial,” Judge Brandt said. “You’ve got sufficient disclosure right now to start your defense.”

Alley noted that some of the testimony that had already been disclosed to the defense was contradictory, and that one witness was unable to identify Void in a photo array. The prosecutor, he argued, had the duty to disclose any other inconsistencies found during her investigation, pursuant to the Brady rule. 

“All the inconsistencies have been turned over,” the prosecutor said. The prosecution had not interviewed everyone on the scene, the prosecutor admitted.

When Judge Brandt asked why the prosecution hadn’t sought to hear from everyone in the vicinity, the prosecutor said she discounted several individuals who she deemed to not have a clear vantage point of the shooting, and one individual who was “heavily intoxicated.”

That individual had been sitting at the bus stop, only feet away from the location of the shooting, when it occurred, the prosecutor said. Though she did not interview that witness, the prosecution has a name for him, which could either be his first name or an alias.

“I’m going to order that you turn over that name, as best you got it,” Judge Brandt told the prosecutor. “Let the defense go on a hunt [for him].”

On the day of the shooting in 2018, court records show that Void was seen by multiple witnesses approaching his mother at the gas station lot and asking for the keys to her gold Chevy Impala. Void’s mother was with Lawson at the lot, telling Metropolitan Police Department officers later that Lawson was her dealer for crack cocaine.

She refused to give Void the keys, and Lawson told Void “something to the effect of she ain’t giving you shit,” a witness told officers, according to court records.

Void then pulled a gun on his mother, beat her, and took the Impala. He drove off but returned to the scene some time later, standing with another man at the nearby bus stop. When Lawson left the gas station lot and headed in the direction of the bus stop, Void shot him, court records show.

The warrant issued for Void’s arrest charged him only with first-degree murder while armed. On Jan. 14, 2020, Void was indicted for six additional charges, including armed carjacking and three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence on top of the murder charge.

As the Thursday hearing concluded, Davies requested information about the people at the gas station who weren’t pursued by the prosecutor, who may or may not have had a clear line of sight.

“The Court of Appeals would probably have something to say about the prosecution having witnesses, potential eyewitnesses, and failing, for whatever reason it was, to interview them,” Judge Brandt said in her ruling.

The parties are scheduled to reconvene on Oct. 14 for a status hearing.