The prosecution called several witnesses to try to convince the jury that only a guilty verdict was just in a case involving the murder of a 10-year-old girl.
Gregory Taylor, 26, Quentin Michals, 25, Qujuan Thomas, 24, Darrise Jeffers, 23, Isaiah Murchison, 22, and Marquell Cobbs, 21, are six of 10 defendants charged with first-degree murder, criminal street gang affiliation, conspiracy, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, assault with intent to kill, and other charges regarding a fatal drive-by shooting that resulted in Makiyah Wilson’s death. The shooting happened on the 300 block of 53rd Street, NE on July 16, 2018.
The witnesses included Makiyah’s older sister, a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer who responded to the scene, a real estate and facilities manager of a local public school, an IT lead for surveillance retrieval at the MPD and a resident of Wellington Park.
The victim’s sister, who also endured a gunshot during the July 16, 2018 incident, said Makiyah had gone to get a snack from the ice cream truck near their Clay Terrace home. She was eating the snack on the front porch when shots were first fired.
According to the sister, there were three other individuals with them on the porch when the shooting took place.
She said she remembers a black car showing up at the entrance of Clay Terrace and hearing several gunshots. The sister said her initial reaction was to duck her and her sister’s head down to avoid getting hit.
After struggling to open the door to their home, Makiyah’s sister, alongside the victim and a few other individuals, stumbled into their house. She said Makiyah got up and started holding her chest.
Makiyah collapsed into her sister’s arms. Even though the sister was shot herself, officers had to remove Makiyah from her arms to be able to perform CPR, but she never let go of her hand.
“I was not worried about that, I was worried about my sister,” she stated.
During cross examination, defense attorney John Zucker, who was representing Taylor, repeatedly asked the sister why she never mentioned the “beef” between Wellington Park, a gang the defendants are allegedly a part of and Clay Terrace, the name of the neighborhood Makiyah was shot, to the prosecution when she testified in 2018.
The testimonies along with photos that were used left the victim’s family in tears. DC Superior Court Judge Robert Okun reminded the audience to limit their reaction as to not sway the jury’s verdict.
A lady, who took the place of another witness the prosecution originally selected to testify, said she saw Michals, Cobbs, Murchison, another defendant ,who she refused to identify in court, and others who are not involved in the trial at a trap house, where she lived, all the time. The lady was a neighbor to the intended witness who recently died before the trial began.
The witness was not cooperative while she answered the prosecution’s questions. She kept answering with; I do not know, or no which led the prosecution to retrieve her answers from Grand Jury testimony.
The witness previously testified that Michals, Cobbs and Murchison had guns on them all the time except when police were around.
The witness also testified, during her Grand Jury testimony, that she had knowledge from social media of a “beef” between Clay Terrace and Wellington Park .
Other witnesses who spoke to the jury Tuesday included an administrator for Knowledge Is Power Program( KIPP) public schools in DC, the lead for the MPD Information Technology team and a the first responding officer to the scene.
The trial is set to resume on Feb 22.
