DC Superior Court Judge Michael Ryan considered a defendant’s “horrendous” upbringing and mental state when sentencing him to nine years of imprisonment and three years of supervised release on March 13.
Kevin Stanton, 45, pleaded guilty on Oct. 16, 2025 to assault with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence for his involvement in the shooting of two victims on the unit block of M Street, NE on Nov. 7, 2024. One victim sustained a gunshot wound to his back and the other victim was grazed by a bullet on her palm.
According to a report about Stanton Judge Ryan reviewed, Stanton had “an extraordinary upbringing from the very beginning.”
At one-year-old Stanton was placed in an oven, sustaining burns on his body. He was removed from his mother’s household, then placed with his father, which was “not a positive experience either,” Judge Ryan said. Afterwards, he and his brother were sent to live with his uncle, who struggled with substance abuse and reportedly abused them. The brothers were sent to separate group homes.
During his time in foster care, Stanton witnessed “drive-by shootings, bodies, and murder at a very young age,” Judge Ryan reported. Stanton was in-and-out of foster care for 11 years and the foster parent “was not what we would hope for.”
According to the court report, before the age of 18, Stanton lived with his mother for short stretches of time but was hospitalized multiple times because of self-harm. At the age of 20, Stanton was shot 16 times.
Two years ago, Stanton’s brother, the only person close to him according to Judge Ryan, was killed. “The killing of his brother was a horrible experience” for Stanton and his mother also recently died, said the judge.
Judge Ryan read to the court his notes on Stanton’s criminal history. He served about 18 years in prison for another shooting and including aggravated assault, cocaine possession and distribution, escape attempt, reckless driving, and assault of an officer.
When Judge Ryan finished his “brief sketch” of what he knew about Stanton, the prosecution contextualized Stanton’s criminal record. For the shooting offense that resulted in 18 years of imprisonment, Stanton had apparently robbed an acquaintance of crack cocaine. He came back to return the stolen drugs but instead shot the person. Stanton fled, got into a cab, then pointed a gun to the driver’s head and told him to give him the keys. The driver ran out of the car with the keys and Stanton shot him in the back, said prosecutors.
The prosecution claimed that Stanton had not learned his lesson from his lengthy imprisonment. In 2025, Stanton allegedly assaulted his ex-partner. As part of the plea agreement in this case, prosecutors dropped the charges related to that incident.
For this case, the prosecution reminded Judge Ryan that Stanton reported that the shooting was not motivated by his brother’s death, his testimony was inconsistent, and he “went into autopilot mode when he locked eyes with the victim.”
According to the prosecution, Stanton approached the front steps of the victim’s home and shot the first victim in the back, grazing the second victim, in “broad daylight” without any legal justification when both victims were unarmed.
The prosecution requested a sentence of 10 years, the top of the sentencing guidelines, noting his criminal history and the circumstances.
Stanton’s attorney, Shawn Sukumar, asked Judge Ryan to consider Stanton’s mental health issues, because he suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a disorder developed after witnessing or experiencing traumatic events. Sukumar argued the “autopilot” statement made by Stanton in a video interview was a moment of dissociation, a PTSD symptom.
Sukumar informed Judge Ryan that a doctor tested Stanton, and said he may have “quite possibly every condition in the DSM Manual (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)” due to his “traumatic” life experiences.
“I can’t personally recall another client of mine where his earliest experiences on this planet were extraordinarily painful,” Sukumar said. Sukumar hoped Judge Ryan would agree that most, if not all, the other defendants who have stood before him have not had as much of an “unspeakably traumatic” life Stanton has experienced.
Stanton’s “mere continued presence on this planet is a miracle,” as he did not die by suicide or someone killing him, Sukumar said. Despite his history, Sukumar pointed out, Stanton is the last to use this as an excuse to “absolve himself of culpability.”
Sukumar wanted the court to acknowledge that even if he was sentenced to the lower end of the guidelines, Stanton would be released from prison as a significantly older man. “At a certain age, a person starts to become less of a risk of violence,” Sukumar said.
“Stanton has the means and desire to live a life beyond the cards that were dealt to him,” Sukumar said.
Stanton said “I have been a victim in the past, I’m sorry I put them through what I’ve been through. I never want to cause someone pain again.”
“I just, I really don’t know anything about what is or what was going on in Stanton’s mind, but the facts stand for themselves,” Judge Ryan said. “The facts of the event and the facts of his upbringing are not to be filtered through the same framework as his current thinking. I have absolutely no idea what happened to cause this crime.”
Judge Ryan sentenced Stanton to six years for the assault charge and nine years for the possession charge, to run concurrently and followed by three years of supervised release. Stanton must register as a gun offender in DC upon his release.
Upon excusing the parties, Judge Ryan encouraged Stanton to figure out “who you are and what you are doing with your life between now and when you get out.” He encouraged Stanton to “rise above it, it will be incredibly more difficult because of things you cannot control.”
No further dates were set.
