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Man killed in one punch, documents say

The man who told police he punched Desmond Johnson was ordered held without bail on Tuesday.

Paul Hagans Jr., 36, was identified by police as the man arrested and charged with aggravated assault for Johnson’s death.

According to charging documents, on March 2, Hagans, a construction worker, was in charge of traffic control when a coworker pointed out a man who was throwing traffic cones.

Hagans approached the man, later identified as Johnson, and “words were exchanged.” Hagans told police the situation escalated and Johnson allegedly held a traffic cone and “flinched” toward Hagans, who punched Johnson in response. Hagan fled the scene.

Johnson collapsed on the 200 Block of Rhode Island Ave., NE, where metro transit police found him suffering from trauma, according to police.

Johnson was brought to a nearby hospital and succumbed to his injuries the following day. The coroner ruled his cause of blunt force trauma to the head and declared Johnson’s death a homicide.

After investigating the incident, police called Hagans at which time he told police “he had hit the guy and knows he’s going to jail” and further promised to turn himself in later that night.

Hagans was later arrested and charged with aggravated assault, though additional charges are pending in the wake of Johnson’s death.

The defendant is being held without bond and will be presented in court March 13 for a preliminary hearing.

Defense presents potential hiccup in James Anderson murder trial

Before jury selection could begin on Tuesday, defense attorneys in the James Anderson murder trial presented a potential hiccup in trial proceedings.

Defense attorney Eugene Ohm said he was unable to secure the attendance of a witnesses for next Thursday, the start of the defense’s portion of the trial for Dujuan Garris. Ohm said he hoped to put the witness on the stand the following Monday, a scenario Judge Milton Lee was not in favor of.

Judge Lee said the delay was “unacceptable” and ordered Ohm to try to secure the witness’s arrival to court for the start of the defense’s case on Thursday, March 16. Lee further explained that he does not want to push the proceedings because the jury would then have a gap day between testimonials.

The prosecution is scheduled to begin their five day case on Wednesday.

Garris, 21, is being held without bond as he faces first-degree murder charges.

Friends of victim and suspect testify in Derryck Decuir trial


The alleged chain of events that led to the death of a teenager were described to the jury Monday by friends of the suspect and victim.

Rachean Bethea testified Monday in the trial of Derryck Decuir, who was charged with Malek Mercer’s murder. Bethea is the older brother of Tyshawn Bethea, and called the police when his younger brother called to say their friend had been shot.

The prosecution played the 911 tape between Bethea and a dispatcher where Bethea called for help. When asked what he remembers about his brother after the shooting, Bethea described having to console and caress his brother “like a baby” because he was so upset.

“He was like my little brother, I would see him almost every day.” Bethea said of Mercer.

Decuir’s defense has argued he acted in self-defense, and that Mercer had a gun in a bag he carried when he was shot. The defense showed a photo of both of the Bethea brothers holding a gun in a photo. Though Bethea confirmed he had been arrested and charged with carrying a pistol, he vehemently deneid he had ever asked Mercer to hold a gun in his bag.

The defense called Anthony Ryans as a witness, who was one of two men with Decuir the night he shot Mercer. Ryans, who was wearing a GPS tracking ankle bracelet at the time of the shooting was on parole for another crime. He turned himself into police following the shooting so police would not believe he was the murder suspect.

On the night of the shooting, the three men were on their way back from Decuir’s father’s funeral. Decuir and Ryans are best friends and cousins, Ryans said in court. When the three men got off the bus, they parted ways. Ryans heard a gunshot and panicked.

 

 

“I know a gun shot when I hear one…I ducked a little bit when I heard the gunshot because I wasn’t trying to get shot,” Ryans said.

Ryans told the jury he and McCaskill shook their heads in disappointment when Decuir caught up with them after he shot Mercer.

“When he caught up to me, I started panicking because I knew he was in a bad situation,” Ryans said during his testimony on Monday.

When the government asked him what happened after he got home the night of the shooting, Ryans said he was sad.

“When I came home, I got in the shower and started crying because [the shooting] happened for no reason.” Ryans said said to the jury in court on Monday.

Decuir declined to go to the police with him and asked Ryans to call him Derryck Miles. Miles was the last name of Decuir’s late father.

The trial is still in progress, and will resume on Tuesday.

 

Suspect arrested for fatal assault of 41-year-old man

Police have charged a 36-year-old man for allegedly fatally assaulting a man in an argument.

In a press release, police say Metro Transit Police found Desmond Joseph unresponsive and suffering from a head injury in the 200 block of Rhode Island Ave., NE.

According to the Washington Post, Joseph and another man were involved in an argument over parking. The Post identified the man as Paul Hagans, though police on Tuesday were not available to confirm details of Joseph’s death, or the suspect’s name. They did announce the arrest of a 36-year-old man charged with aggravated assault.

Joseph, 41, was brought to a nearby hospital and placed on life support, according to the Post. He died the following day from his injuries.

 

 

Two years after death, James Anderson murder trial begins

Attorneys for the defense and prosecution began the James Anderson murder trial with a laundry list of motions where cellphones were of particular interest.

On behalf of 21-year-old Dujuan Garris, defense attorney Jeffrey Stein made an argument in favor of suppressing his client’s phone number.

According to Stein, Garris’ phone number was obtained during a line of questioning that was intended to incriminate Garris. Detective Paris White was put on the stand and said that through routine booking procedures he asked for Garris’ cell phone number, make, model and passcode – which Garris refused to disclose.

Stein said this line of questioning was a ruse in order to use Garris’ cellphone to connect him to the location of the January 2015 fatal shooting of Anderson, 27.

Judge Milton Lee denied the motion to suppress and said the inquiry about Garris’ number was routine and strictly procedural.

Among other motions, defense attorney Heather Pinckney was introduced to the court speaking on behalf of her client who was unable to attend court.

According to the prosecution, they plan to call Pinkney’s client to the stand as his phone placed him at the scene of the murder.

Pinckney argued for immunity in exchange for her client’s testimony. However, the prosecution recalled a previous grand jury trial in which her client waived his fifth amendment rights. Pinckney rebutted on the grounds that her client, who is a minor, was unaware of the weight of his actions.

Ultimately, Judge Lee ruled in favor of Pinckney and immunity was secured for her client.

Another detective, Damien Johnson, who worked the Anderson case was brought to the stand to testify about a missing DVD, which is said to contain the interview of a witness who was allegedly in the apartment directly above the shooting.

According to Johnson, he was unsure whether or not the interview was recorded and burned on a DVD. The defense attempted to ask a line of questions that would bring to light where the DVD is.

In the end, it was still unclear if the DVD exists. By the end of the questioning Judge Lee said, “I can’t say there’s bad faith here.”

The case is set to continue Tuesday morning.

Garris is being held without bond as he faces first-degree murder charges.

Man killed in Congress Heights shooting

Police are investigating a fatal shooting that left 28-year-old Andrew McPhatter dead.

According to a police spokesperson, on the morning of March 1 police responded to 3500 block of Wheeler Rd., SE and found McPhatter suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. McPhatter was brought to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead four days later.

Police have not released any suspect information at this time.

34-year-old man killed in weekend shooting

Police are investigating the shooting death of 34-year-old Delonta Alexander.

According to a police spokesperson, while responding to reports of a shooting early Saturday morning, police found Alexander suffering from a gunshot wound on the 2700 Block of Langston Place, SE.

Alexander was brought to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Police have not released any suspect information at this time.

One murder suspect offered plea deal, other cases continued

Perez Green, the man charged with the murder of James Harling last October was offered a plea deal on Friday.

Though details of the deal were not made publicly available, Green is due back in court to move ahead with his case and make a decision on the deal on April 13. In the meantime, Green has been released from jail under high intensity supervision.

Two other suspects’ cases were postponed. The preliminary hearings for murder suspects. Deangelo Thorne and Herman Lee Cook were pushed to later in the month. Thorne, charged with the murder of Waliyatou Amadou, is due back in court next Friday for his preliminary hearing. Cook, who police arrested after a months-long search for the alleged murder of Donald Stephen Johnson, is due back in court on March 17.

 

Government presents more witnesses in trial of Derryck Decuir

 

Taped phone calls played in court this week, capturing a jailhouse conversation between a murder suspect and his girlfriend, sounded like the well-known refrain from one-hit wonder, the Baja Men.

In the conversations between homicide suspect Derryck Decuir and girlfriend Ashley Graves, Decuir asked his beau if she could “let his dogs out” of his backyard.

Prosecutors contended during Thursday’s proceedings that was Decuir’s way of asking his girlfriend to take his gun out of the backyard so police could not find it when they went to his house.

Decuir, who is on trial for the murder of 16-year-old Malek Mercer, is also heard asking Graves if she knew where his “toe nail shells” were, code for bullets, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors called multiple witnesses, including police officers who worked the case, but most of the day centered around Graves’ testimony, which prosecutors tried to show was riddled with inconsistencies from when she testified before a grand jury.

Graves testified she didn’t know what her boyfriend meant when he said  “let the dogs out” or that he was allegedly referring to bullets when he talked about “toe nail shells.”

“No, he had a dog, so I assumed he was talking about his actual dog,” she said.

The prosecutor showed Graves testimony she gave to the grand jury in 2015, when she said, according to transcripts prosecutors presented in court, “At first I didn’t know what he was talking about. But then I put the puzzles together [and] knew he was talking about his gun.”

After she was presented with the transcript, Graves said she did not recall what she said in 2015.

About the toenail shells, Graves told the grand jury, “The toenail shells he was asking me about were actually code for bullets,” according to transcripts prosecutors showed her in court.

Graves said she confronted Decuir when heard he was a person of interest in Mercer’s murder.

“He said it must have been a mistake and that he didn’t do anything,” she said.

The government also called Detective Joseph Labun, an officer assigned to the case, who explained he went to the crime scene after his GPS detected gunshots. He asked Decuir if he heard the shots.

“I asked him where did he think they were coming from,” Labun said. “He pointed the opposite direction of where my GPS had actually detected the gun shot. … So I thought it was strange. He turned away and then started running and I began to chase after him.”

The trial for Decuir, who is being held without bond, resumes Monday.

Documents: Raymond Harper charging documents

Raymond Harper was charged with assault with intent to kill in an incident where James Neal was killed.

[documentcloud url=”http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3480258-Raymond-Harper-warrant-affidavit.html”]