DC Superior Court Judge Danya Dayson ruled to exclude some expert testimony in a long-standing homicide case the defense said was submitted late during a hearing on March 25.
Jamil Whitley, 38, is charged with first-degree premeditated murder while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, carrying a pistol without a license outside a home or business, and unlawful possession of a firearm with a prior conviction greater than one year. The charges stem from his alleged involvement in the fatal shooting of 32-year-old Kevin Redd on the 4700 block of Jay Street, NE, on June 11, 2020. Redd sustained three gunshot wounds to his shoulder, chest, and forearm.
Judge Dayson preliminarily excluded a portion of an Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST) report about call location that the allegedly prosecutors disclosed late.
According to the defense’s March 13 motion to exclude, the CAST report, which the prosecution conducted in January and filed Feb. 13, included phone data beginning June 10, 2020. Judge Dayson previously allowed other CAST data as evidence in the case.
Madalyn Harvey, Whitley’s attorney, said the defense wanted another expert to verify the data because it’s possible the prosecution’s expert is “incompetent” or made a mistake. She said the expert the defense used to verify other CAST data is unavailable.
The defense said in the motion to exclude that the prosecution knew about the expert witness and what he would testify since “early in the case.”
A prosecutor said the situation did not constitute failure to disclose because they did not have the new CAST data earlier. They also said admitting the CAST report would allow them to “streamline” their case by providing the same information through one witness instead of three.
“Our strategy was different,” the prosecutor said when asked why they did not disclose the report in a timely fashion.
In another ruling, Judge Dayson allowed prosecutors to introduce two 911 calls made by witnesses as evidence because they speak to the incident and timing of the police response.
Harvey said because the calls occurred after the shooting, the witnesses were recounting past events rather than a present emergency.
The prosecution’s motion to admit the evidence, filed on March 12, said the calls satisfied present sense impression requirements because they were made “very soon” — within two-and-a-half minutes — after the shooting.
Judge Dayson said given the brief time between the shooting and calls and the callers’ intentions to procure medical help for the victim, the calls were admissible.
Additionally, Harvey said Redd’s wife’s family members just informed her that the wife was still alive, contrary to what the prosecution previously asserted.
The prosecutor said they received an email from another prosecutor on May 28, 2024, saying the victim’s wife died in custody in Fairfax County, Virginia. They said the he found out from the United States Marshals and said they will verify this information.
The trial is scheduled to begin on March 30.
