Judge Sets Trial Date for Juvenile Charged with 1st-Degree Murder

By D.C. Witness Staff - October 8, 2020
Daily Stories | Homicides | Juveniles | Suspects | Victims |

On Oct. 8, a DC judge scheduled a trial date for a juvenile charged with first-degree murder while armed and carrying a pistol without a license.

DC Superior Court Judge Andrea Hertzfeld heard from the juvenile’s defense counsel, Kevin O’Sullivan, regarding a fourth motion for release.

The juvenile is charged with the murder of 36-year-old Antonio Gardiner on July 4 outside a McDonald’s in Southeast, DC.

According to O’Sullivan, the juvenile was only under supervision in his other cases because his Deferred Dispositional Agreement (DDA) had been extended because he failed to pay $944 in restitution to a victim in one of his cases.

O’Sullivan said a juvenile couldn’t be expected to pay almost $1,000 during a pandemic, and he had been in compliance with all of his other conditions.

The juvenile was sentenced under the DDA on Dec. 19, 2019, and O’Sullivan said his DDA was set to expire on July 1, three days before the alleged murder.

He argued that if the DDA had not been extended, the juvenile would have had his other convictions set aside by the time the alleged offense occurred.

The prosecution, however, stated the DDA was a nine-month long agreement. 

She also said the DC government was extremely generous in allowing the respondent to continue with his DDA as he incurred another charge while under the agreement, which was in violation of the agreement.

O’Sullivan acknowledged that they had not seen a copy of the agreement, but had only seen reports from the juvenile’s probation officer.

O’Sullivan then argued for the juvenile’s release on the basis that the emergency order for the pandemic does not include the ability to hold juveniles more than 45 days. He said holding the juvenile for 92 days is unconstitutional, and he should be released.

“I don’t find the detention is unlawful given the deadlines have been suspended,”Judge Hertzfeld said after reading a statute for the record. She declined the defense’s motion for release and asked if the parties wanted to schedule a trial.

Given the pandemic, counsel asked for a trial date in early January of 2021 in hopes that the courts will be reopened.

The juvenile’s trial is scheduled to start on Jan. 5, 2021.

Read D.C. Witness’ previous article on the juvenile’s case.

This was written by Krystin Roehl