Judge Rules Against Suppressing Defendant’s Statements to Police

By D.C. Witness Staff - June 18, 2018
Court | Homicides | Suspects |

A judge ruled against a motion that would have suppressed statements made by a murder defendant while he was recovering from surgery.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Craig Iscoe said he ruled against suppressing statements Willie Glover made while under the influence of morphine because the prosecution met its burden of proof to show that police did not obtain the statements through coercion.

Judge Iscoe noted that Glover was not hallucinating or speaking nonsensically when he made the statements and that officers of the Metropolitan Police Department voluntarily terminated the interview when it became clear that Glover could not continue.

Glover, 40, is charged with first-degree murder along with Charles McRae and Joseph Barbour. The three are accused of stabbing Lenard Wills in an apartment on the 700 block of 24th Street, NE in 2015. Glover was arrested after checking himself into a hospital in Prince George’s County with stab wounds.

Judge Iscoe said he would not credit testimony from the mother of Glover’s child, who said Glover was incoherent for days at a time while in the hospital. This was contradicted by medical records and testimonies from other witnesses. The baby-mother also said she was too upset to notice whether nurses were coming and going from Glover’s bedside.

In addition, Judge Iscoe ruled that information about selling drugs would not be admissible in court since its potential to turn the jury against the defendants outweighed its value. Judge Iscoe said his understanding of the incident in which Wills was killed was consistent with a robbery, so it would be treated as such.

The jury trial for Glover, McRae, 66, and Barbour, 38, is set to begin on June 19.