Judge Releases Murder Defendant After Finding Probable Cause

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After hearing from a Metropolitan Police Department detective, a DC Superior Court judge found probable cause that a murder defendant could have committed the crime.

Twenty-eight year old Olivia Cartwright-Cole, also known as Tristian Tee Cole, Sky Janae Mills and Tristian Melvin Cole, is charged with second-degree murder while armed. She allegedly stabbed 24-year-old Joel David Midgett on the 200 block of K Street, NW in 2015. She is a transgender woman.

Judge Todd Edelman said that he found probable cause because a witness was able to identify Cole.

Judge Edelman did not grant the prosecution’s request to detain Cole because the prosecution didn’t arrest the defendant for two years after identifying her as a suspect.

She was released under the high intensity supervision program (HISP). Cole is required to wear an ankle monitor, stay at her aunt’s residence and participate in drug tests.

A felony status conference is scheduled to occur on April 10.

According to the Washington Post, Midgett had a son at the time of his murder. The Post reported that Midgett’s son is now the second-generation in his family to lose a parent to violence in DC.

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