Nephew’s Murder Linked to Uncle’s Homicide, Prosecutors Say

By D.C. Witness Staff - May 23, 2018
Court | Homicides | Suspects | Victims |

After testifying at his uncle’s trial, a witness was allegedly shot and killed as retribution, prosecutors told a judge during a trial readiness hearing.

Three months after Adam Barker’s death, according to a witness, there had been people in the Woodland area, located in Southeast DC, looking to kill others, who connected Paul Swann and Traveous Brown to the homicide of Barker’s uncle Simwone K Milstead. The defendants were found not guilty in the Milstead homicide.

“Good thing I’m in jail or they’d have tried to kill me too,” Barker, 21, told witnesses while he was being held in 2014 for second-degree theft, which was not related to the homicide of his uncle.

Barker was killed on the 2700 block of Langston Place, SE in 2016. Milstead was killed on the same block in 2014.

Defense attorneys for Swann and Brown, who, at the time of arrest, were 27 and 24, respectively, requested May 18 to receive grand jury transcripts, police reports and clearer photos of weapons and casings. The attorneys requested that all evidence be available by May 26.

The defendants are charged with first-degree murder while armed and illegal possession of firearms by felons.

District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Ronna L. Beck said she will revisit the case on May 24.