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By
Alex Garcia Pecina
- November 13, 2024
Daily Stories
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Homicides
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stabbing
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Suspects
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Victims
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DC Superior Court Judge Marisa Demeo denied a defendant’s motion to place sanctions on the prosecution for losing evidence in a homicide case on Nov. 8.
Warren Tyson, 54, is charged with second-degree murder while armed, carrying a dangerous weapon, and enticing a child for his alleged involvement in the fatal stabbing of Michael Johnson on Oct. 22, 2021 on the 4900 block of East Capitol Street, SE.
According to court documents, the stabbing followed an altercation about Tyson’s allegedly sending inappropriate material to a minor.
Michelle Lockard, Tyson’s attorney, previously filed motions requesting sanctions, claiming that the prosecution did not provide the defense with a SIM card from a lavender iPhone involved in the case. This was following the last hearing focused on suppressing some of Tyson’s text messages.
The prosecution called a special agent who testified about the contents of the SIM card which excluded messages and pictures contained in the phone. He explained that the contents could also be provided by unlocking the iPhone and searching in the settings.
The prosecution acknowledged that they had the physical SIM card after an arrest and warrant for the lavender iPhone, but informed the court that a SIM card does not contain messages or pictures from the phone’s memory.
Lockard acknowledged that the SIM card may not have had important information, but believed that there was still negligence on the prosecution’s part by not making it available.
Judge Demeo emphasized that there are established protocols for handling and storing evidence, and that the missing SIM card did not contain information that would significantly impact the defense’s ability to mount a case.
The prosecution, the judge noted, was slightly negligent in handling the SIM card properly, but they photographed it, and tried following proper chain-of-custody procedures. She denied the motion for sanctions explaining that there was no indication of bad faith on the part of the prosecutor.
Parties are slated for trial on Nov. 14.