Judge Takes Murder Defendant Off Home Confinement

By D.C. Witness Staff - January 12, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

A DC Superior Court judge relaxed the pretrial release conditions of a murder defendant after he spent approximately eight-and-a-half months on home confinement. 

Quincy Johnson is charged with first-degree murder while armed in the shooting of 20-year-old Anthony Riley on July 17, 2020. That day, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers found Riley and another man in a vehicle on the 100 block of Walnut Street, NW, according to court documents. The other man survived the shooting.

Johnson was 16-years-old when he was arrested a little more than one month later but is being tried as an adult. 

When defense attorney Roderick Thompson filed a motion to take his client off home confinement in the middle of December, he noted that Johnson had no infractions during the seven months he had spent on pretrial release by then.

“Seven months of compliance is a long period of compliance,” Judge Robert Okun agreed during the Jan. 11 proceedings.

Thompson said his client has a job opportunity lined up if he is allowed to leave his home. 

The prosecutor in this case opposed the request to modify Johnson’s supervision, pointing to the seriousness of the allegations against him. Still, she said she did not specifically take issue with the defendant working and suggested a middle ground to allow for more flexibility. 

Judge Okun called the prosecutor’s suggestion reasonable but ultimately agreed to lift the home confinement order. 

Johnson will remain in the High Intensity Supervision Program (HISP). While defendants in HISP typically have a 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew, Judge Okun imposed an 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew for Johnson as a precaution to keep him from being out too late.