The Metropolitan Police Department is attempting to locate a vehicle in connection with a March 8 traffic fatality.
At approximately 8:03 p.m. the suspect entered the victim’s vehicle in the 1800 block of Vernon Street, NW, according to a press release. While attempting to leave, the suspect hit the victim, 33-year-old Rakesh Patel, with his vehicle on the corner of 18th Street and Florida Avenue. Patel was pronounced dead on scene.
The vehicle is described as a dark Mercedez with Ohio tags.
A woman will not have to serve prison time for her role in a deadly traffic accident after a DC Superior Court judge passed a suspended sentence.
Briana Miller was indicted on charges of second-degree murder, driving under the influence and reckless driving for running over 47-year-old Delane Scales during the early hours of July 8, 2017. The accident occurred on the 3200 block of 22nd Street, SE, where the speed limit was 25 mph, according to court documents.
Miller, 38, lost control of the Hyundai she was driving and hit a fire hydrant, according to court documents. The responding officer also reported smelling a heavy odor of PCP in the vehicle, a mind-altering drug. However, defense attorney Pierce Suen said that while his client was negligent, she was not impaired.
The defendant pleaded guilty to negligent homicide on March 4 and was sentenced that day.
As part of the plea deal, parties agreed to recommend a fully suspended 36-months sentence with two years of probation. Judge Maribeth Raffinan adopted the recommendation.
Scales’ wife, a childhood friend and her cousin gave victim impact statements.
Suen said that after the incident, the defendant lost her job, went through a depression phase and got a new job where she is now doing very well.
Conditions of Miller’s probation include drug and alcohol testing and treatment, grief counseling, obtaining or maintaining employment, attending a victim impact panel and receiving a mental health screening.
Two co-defendants in a murder case rejected a plea offer from the prosecution. They are now scheduled to go on trial in 2023.
On Dec. 21, 2020, police officers were dispatched to investigate a vehicle stopped in the roadway on the 5000 block of Bass Place, SE. They found 25-year-old Tyree Brox in the vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound. Less than two weeks later, Rashaad Winston, 26, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder while armed. Keshawn Taylor, 22, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder while armed the following March.
The two have yet to be indicted, but during a March 8 hearing, the prosecutor said they anticipate having an indictment ready within a month.
Defense attorneys Elizabeth Weller and Joseph Wong said their clients were offered similar plea deals but have chosen to reject them.
DC Superior Court Judge Rainey Brandt scheduled the trial to take place in January 2023. Parties estimate it will last about two weeks.
In preparation for the trial, Judge Brandt scheduled a motion hearing for Sept. 23.
A defendant accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl he has known for her entire life accepted a plea deal from the prosecution.
Jerry Barton was initially charged with first-degree sexual abuse in a domestic violence case. On March 8, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor. The charge carries a maximum penalty of seven-and-a-half years in prison.
During the hearing, the prosecutor said it is unclear if the victim and Barton are biologically related, but said they had a familial-like relationship.
The defendant has been released since February 2020. He will remain released as he awaits his sentencing date, which DC Superior Court Judge Rainey Brandt scheduled for May 27.
On March 8, the Metropolitan Police Department arrested 44-year-old Dejuan Bell, charging him with the murder of 34–year-old Davon Childs on the 2300 block of 4th Street NE.
A man initially charged with murder in the aftermath of a Congress Heights shooting pleaded guilty to assault and gun charges.
On the afternoon of March 31, 2021, Metropolitan Police Department officers found several people suffering from gunshot wounds on the 1300 Block of Congress Street, SE. Two of them, 28-year-old Keosha Ferguson and 25-year-old George Evans III, succumbed to their injuries. Tarik Turner was initially charged with second-degree murder while armed in Furguson’s death. Turner, 28, said Ferguson shot him in the leg and he fired back in self-defense.
During a March 8 hearing, Turner accepted the prosecution’s offer to plead guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and carrying a pistol without a license, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
DC Superior Court Judge Maribeth Raffinan accepted the plea deal. Turner’s attorney, Quo Judkins, asked Judge Raffinan to release her client into the High Intensity Supervision Program as he waits to be sentenced. She pointed out that he has no prior convictions. Still, Judge Raffinan denied the request, expressing that the guilty plea warrants him remaining at DC Jail.
Tuner is set to be sentenced on May 27.
A defense attorney in a child sex abuse case requested a preliminary hearing after the defendant rejected a plea offer.
The defendant is accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl at a Washington Highlands residence in 2020. The victim fled the 63-year-old defendant after the alleged incident and immediately notified another adult in the home, according to court documents.
The defendant was arrested after an interview with officers and charged with second-degree child sex abuse. He was released to the High Intensity Supervision Program in July.
During a March 7 hearing, the defendant appeared alarmed by the prosecution’s offer to plead him out on a misdemeanor sexual abuse of a child or minor charge. Defense attorney Joseph Yarbough interrupted his client before he could get a sentence out, reminding him to answer the question directly since he is still on the record. The plea offer was declined.
Judge Maribeth Raffinan scheduled the preliminary hearing for April 4. She denied the defense’s request to relax his release conditions.
Nearly seven years went by before police made any arrests in the death of 46-year-old Kevin Robinson. Now, they think they have their men, and one of them is the victim’s son. A detective who investigated the homicide testified during a two-day preliminary hearing to determine if the case against the defendants has enough evidence to go to trial.
During the early hours of Nov. 30, 2014, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers found Robinson lying on the couch of an apartment on the 600 block of Edgewood Street, NE, with a gunshot wound to the face. Charles Jeter is charged with second-degree murder while armed in connection with his death. Robinson’s son, Kevin Sewell, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
The case was previously handled by a detective who left the MPD Homicide Branch in 2019. The case was reassigned to another detective who spoke to many of the witnesses interviewed by the previous detective.
The new detective prepared the arrest warrants for Jeter, 36, and Sewell, 32, and took the stand during both days of the preliminary hearing on Feb. 24 and March 7.
The defendants released a rap video two days after the homicide, the detective said. In it, Jeter identifies himself and can be seen wearing what appears to be the same shoes as what he could allegedly be seen wearing in surveillance footage from the apartment Robinson was found in. He could be heard saying, “certified head hitter n****, knocked his sh** off his shoulders.” The detective inferred that Jeter was alluding to shooting someone in the head.
The testimony referenced a cell phone ping that hit an Edgewood cell tower a couple of hours prior to the homicide and again less than an hour after the homicide. The detective created an FBI report to get facial recognition and height analysis from the video but it came back inconclusive.
One of the witnesses was inside the apartment at the time of the shooting and claimed to have locked the front door before going to sleep. According to court documents, the witness was awakened by loud bangs but did not immediately recognize them to be gunshots. The witness left the bedroom and walked into the living room to find Robinson lying on the couch with a large hole in the side of his face. According to the detective’s testimony and court documents, there were no signs of forced entry into the apartment, and the witness told officers that the spare key to the apartment was missing.
The witness told officers that Robinson and Sewell got into an altercation prior to the homicide. The witness said Sewell physically attacked his father, knocking him to the floor.
Surveillance cameras in the apartment building are on every odd number level in the stairwells. The lead detective made a PowerPoint of clips from the surveillance cameras from the morning of the homicide. Video clips show men believed to be the defendants going up and down in the stairwell prior to the shooting, as well as one of them leaving the building shortly after the shooting while the man believed to be the other defendant, who lived in the building, goes back up to his apartment.
Defense attorneys Rachel McCoy and Carrie Weletz cross-examined the detective on his testimony and the clips that were shown to the court. In a conspiracy charge, the prosecution has to show an agreement to commit the crime, willing participation in the crime, and an overt act that would’ve taken place.
McCoy asked the detective when her client, Sewell, allegedly entered the conspiracy and what the agreement was. The detective referred to the prior physical altercation between him and his father and alleged that the two defendants created the intent together since they both came down from the 7th floor of the apartment building together, as seen on the surveillance video footage.
Weletz asked the detective how he could identify her client, Jeter, from the surveillance footage. He referred to his shoes, hair and clothing.
The video footage does not show blood spatter on either defendant nor could they be seen with a gun, as Weletz pointed out. The detective alleged that this was because Jeter showed Sewell how to break down that specific shotgun for concealment.
The detective said the MPD received several anonymous tips that the person who committed the murder was Robinson’s son, prompting them to look into the connection. Sewell allegedly said in an interview that his father “had it coming.”
Prior to the homicide, many witnesses stated that Jeter and Sewell are always together and were together for a sale of a shotgun that was the same one used in the homicide. The two allegedly sold the shotgun less than two weeks after the murder.
A witness claims they heard Jeter say, “I can get life man for this shit man, that’s why I gotta stay low kid.”
The prosecution argued that its clear that Jeter and Sewell were in the building and the vicinity the night of the murder, as corroborated by the picture posted on social media. The prosecutor argued that the rap video which shows the Edgewood community put them in the general area in the general timeframe of the homicide. The prosecutor maintained that there was a clear discussion on how to conceal the particular shotgun prior to the murder and that there was motive to kill the decedent, the altercation between the decedent and Sewell.
Weletz argued that is no probable cause as it was not unusual for Jeter to be in the building since he lived there. There’s no evidence of forced entry and Jeter did not have access to the apartment, there is no blood or weapon on him and there is no way that he would have been able to conceal a shotgun with that he was wearing, she argued. Weletz also argued her client does not have a motive to commit the crime.
McCoy said there is an absence of the agreement between Jeter and Sewell to conspire, there is no evidence that ties Jeter and Sewell, and no evidence of intent of Sewell to join the crime. McCoy also argued that the identification of Sewell is not reliable as they were not able to get a positive identification from the videos or from the FBI and the testimony of one of the witnesses is the only evidence. She said that in one of the clips shown to a witness, who identifies the person as Sewell, is wrong as the person in the video had a different build and had different facial features.
“This is not a traditional case,” said DC Superior Court Judge Milton Lee.
Judge Lee said this case has an unusual set of circumstances and conspiracy is a rare charge to have. Still, he said there were many compelling facts to show probable cause.
Citing their criminal history, Judge Lee decided to defendants will remain held at DC Jail pending trial. Judge Lee informed the prosecutor that they need to get an indictment rather quickly and set a status hearing on April 21.
The Metropolitan Police Department has announced an arrest in relation to a Feb. 22 homicide.
At approximately 3:39 p.m. officers responded to the 1500 block of North Capitol Street, NE, due to a report of a shooting. Upon arrival, officers located 34-year-old Miana Luckett with gunshot wounds. She was later pronounced dead at a local hospital, according to the press release.
On March 7, MPD officers arrested 23-year-old Ronnie Thorne and charged him with second-degree murder while armed, according to the press release.
A defendant facing felony sexual abuse and kidnapping charges is planning to plead down to a misdemeanor charge during his next hearing.
The defendant allegedly came back to his relative’s Greenway apartment complex, where he was temporarily living, under the influence of alcohol and PCP. He allegedly sexually assaulted his relative’s wife twice, stopping to smoke a PCP-laced cigarette in between the assaults. The victim defended herself by striking him in the head multiple times and ultimately escaped by striking him in the head with a liquor bottle, according to court documents.
The defendant was arrested that same day and charged with assault with intent to commit third-degree sex abuse and kidnapping.
During a March 7 hearing, which comes just shy of one month after the arrest, defense attorney Quo Judkins said they were close to agreeing on a plea deal for misdemeanor sex abuse. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 180 days in jail.
Parties agreed to reconvene on March 18 so the defendant can accept the plea deal.
A DC Superior Court judge managed to schedule a murder case for trial despite a clash between parties over exculpatory evidence, also known as Brady material, that the defense says they have not received.
Ronnie Melson, 41, is charged with first-degree murder while armed and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence in the shooting of 41-year-old Demetrius Jones on the 1700 block of Glaes Street, NE, on Nov. 6, 2020. Melson was formally arraigned in the DC Superior Court on March 7. A heated discussion over missing evidence followed.
Defense attorney Bernadette Armand showed an email thread between the defense and the prosecution discussing evidence that the prosecution agreed to turn over last November. The prosecutor said that there needs to be a scrub of all the evidence to make sure everything is already given and if not then it will be.
Armand rebutted that the prosecution has been notified and told the court there has been a previous Brady violation against the prosecutor handling this case currently. She wants it sent over as soon as possible.
“We have to have a case memory here,” Armand said.
DC Superior Court Judge Robert Okun agreed with the defense and didn’t understand why the prosecutor needed additional time to send evidence over to the defense, delaying the time they have to review it. The discovery evidence is due April 1.
As parties discussed when the trial should take place, Melson appeared visibly upset by how long it would take for him to go before a jury. He has been held in pretrial detention since November 2020. The defense asked if Melson could address the court.
Melson expressed his concerns to Judge Okun as he asked for an earlier trial date, preferably within this year.
Since the current prosecutor is not available to go to trial until January 2023, Bernadette asked the court if there was another way to ideally have another prosecutor take over.
“This case is not complicated,” said Armand. The prosecutor countered that this case is a felony and not a misdemeanor. The prosecutor also said there are associated procedures equities in place and that she should have time to handle this case in a timely manner. She also pointed out the lack of lawyers who may be available to take over for her.
“Let’s just get it on the calendar,” said Judge Okun, agreeing with the prosecutor. The trial is scheduled for January 2023.
Parties are slated to reconvene for a status hearing on April 1.
A DC Superior Court judge gave parties in a domestic violence case more time to work on a potential plea deal.
The defendant is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and simple assault. He is currently released into the High Intensity Supervision Program.
Defense attorney Kevin Kassees told Judge James Crowell he needed to “throw two or three U.S. attorneys under the bus” because a plea bargain had been discussed two weeks ago but he had not yet received the plea paperwork.
The plea bargain was sent on Feb. 24 and again the day before the March 7 hearing, according to the prosecutor. Turns out, he was apparently sending it to the wrong email address.
Judge Crowell scheduled the proceedings to pick back up on April 13. In the meantime, Kassees plans to turn the case over to a new attorney.
A sex abuse defendant accepted a plea offer without admitting to a criminal act, in what is known as an Alford plea.
According to the prosecution, in November 2021, Ian Rigley knocked on the door of an apartment in Washington Highlands and told the victim he was a cable man. The victim asked for his credentials and when he could not produce any, became afraid and went to grab a pocket knife and a phone. The victim’s grandmother found him on top of her. Multiple witnesses attested to the assault.
Rigley, 30, was initially charged with assault with intent to commit first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree burglary. On March 7, he pleaded guilty to assault with intent to commit first-degree sexual abuse.
As part of the plea deal, the prosecution agreed not to indict the defendant on any other charges. Rigney waived his right to independent DNA testing of the knife, latex gloves and articles of clothing recovered during the investigation. He must register as a sex offender for the remainder of his lifetime.
DC Superior Court Judge Rainey Brandt accepted the Alford plea. Ian could face two to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on May 4.
The Metropolitan Police Department has identified a homicide victim.
At approximately 8:30 a.m. officers responded to the 2300 block of 18th Street, NE, due to a report of a shooting. Upon arrival, officers located 42-year-old Sedrick Miller with gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead on scene, according to the press release.
Michael Garrett, 66, is charged with second-degree murder while armed for allegedly beating 71-year-old Sylvia Matthews death with a cane on Dec. 3, 2021, in a residence on the unit block of Elmira Street, SE. The homicide is believed to have been domestic in nature.
Garrett’s March 4 hearing had to be rescheduled in light of the DC Superior Court operating under an emergency schedule from March 1 to March 4 due to nonviolent demonstrations scheduled to take place in the area.
Judge Robert Okun asked parties if they would like to reschedule the next hearing as soon as possible or delay it. Defense attorney Kristin McGough asked Judge Okun to set the next date as soon as he could. With no objection from the prosecution, Judge Okun scheduled parties to meet again on March 18.
