Jury Finds Murder Defendant Guilty

By D.C. Witness Staff - March 25, 2019
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects | Victims |

After three days of deliberations, a jury found a defendant guilty of shooting a 53-year-old man in Northeast DC.

Kimberly Thompson was convicted of first-degree murder while armed, among other firearms offenses, for shooting Charles Mayo on the 1900 block of Bennett Place, NE in December 10, 2015. According to court documents, Mayo suffered from multiple gunshot wounds. He succumbed to his injuries seven days later.

During the trial, which lasted more than two weeks, prosecutors argued that Thompson disliked Mayo. Thompson described Mayo as “cruddy, a drug dealer and a bad person” to police when he was brought in for questioning. 

Two police officers said they spoke with Thompson, who seemed defensive and easily agitated, on the night of the murder. At the time, Thompson was not a suspect.

Prosecutors said Mayo was sitting outside around 1:30 p.m. when Thompson confronted him and shot him multiple times. When police arrived on the scene, Mayo was slipping in and out of consciousness. He could not identify his shooter.

Mayo’s nephew testified that he saw Thompson shoot his uncle, and that he “saw the man’s face through the window as he drove up.” 

Defense attorney Arthur Luk questioned the nephew’s testimony. During closing arguments, Luk said the witness was sleep deprived and high on marijuana. Luk said the music the nephew was playing made it difficult for him to focus. Luk also pointed out that the nephew admitted to getting parts of his testimony wrong and that Thompson had no real motive to kill Mayo.

Prosecutors said surveillance footage showed a car similar to Thompson’s silver Mercedes Benz driving near the scene of the murder. Police were never able to identify the driver of the other car. According to a witness, police mistook another silver car for Thompson’s car.

Cell phone records also placed Thompson near the scene of the murder.

One witness testified that she saw Thompson in the neighborhood on a regular basis. She said Thompson asked to stay with her, but she declined because of his “irritable attitude.”

Police found a handgun in the trunk of Thompson’s car. A firearms expert said the shell casings found at the scene of the murder matched the recovered gun. According to court documents, nine shell casings were recovered but only two were found in the area where police believe Mayo was standing when he was shot.

Thompson’s sentencing is scheduled on June 7. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison.