Judge Releases a Defendant Charged for a 2014 murder

By D.C. Witness Staff - September 7, 2018
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects |

After enduring two trials, a DC Superior Court judge sentenced a man, who spent more than three years in jail, to time served.  

Following a mistrial in 2017, a jury found Andre Joyner not guilty for the 2014 stabbing death of Jamie Washington. However, the jury did convict Joyner of tampering with physical evidence. Apparently, Joyner, 29, got rid of the clothes he wore on the night of the murder.

Joyner was released from jail June 28 after the jury reached their verdict.

According to the prosecution’s theory, the fatal stabbing stemmed from a hunt for a stolen laptop. Joyner’s girlfriend, at the time, came home from work and found her laptop missing. After talking with her cousin, Joyner’s girlfriend suspected Washington, 31, who was in her apartment earlier that day, took her laptop.

Ultimately, Joyner and his girlfriend searched for Washington and found him in an alleyway on the 700 block of 18th Street, NE. During opening statements, the prosecution told the jury that Joyner stabbed Washington, 31, in the alleyway with a kitchen knife.

The trial, which lasted for two weeks, included Joyner’s ex-girlfriend, who pled guilty to being an accessory to Washington’s murder. She testified as part of a plea bargain with the government.

On Sept. 6, Judge Judith Bartnoff allowed Washington’s mother to speak at the sentencing. However, prior to the mother’s statement, the judge acknowledged that Joyner was not convicted of murder and there was no victim associated with the tampering charge. Thus, she noted there could be no victim impact statement; however, she said she “appreciated” that Washington’s family was there and that they had been through two trials. 

“My son was treated unfairly as far as justice,” Washington’s mother said with tears in her eyes. “I just want to know why. Why did he kill my son? It haunts me every day,” she said.

Judge Bartnoff acknowledged that the case was a “very unusual case.” According to Judge Bartnoff, Joyner was imprisoned a little more than three years, he was arrested in 2015, and the maximum sentence for tampering with evidence is two years. She said Joyner served more time than the court could impose.

The prosecution argued in favor of placing Joyner on five years of supervised release and cited concerns about Joyner’s attitude and the impact it could have on his reentry into society. Judge Bartnoff denied their request and noted that there would be no way to enforce probation, as Joyner already served more than the two-year maximum.