Seven Witnesses Testify During Murder Trial

Seven witnesses testified during the second day of a murder trial for the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old in the summer of 2019.

Tony McClam is charged with first-degree murder while armed in death of Karon Brown on July 18, 2019, on the 2700 block of Naylor Road, SE. A Metropolitan Police Department detective, a Prince George’s County, Md. police officer, a Metro Transit police officer, a U.S. Marshal, a neighbor of McClam and a member of the Washington Metro Transit Authority digital video evidence unit all testified during the second day of McClam’s trial.

The prosecutor asked each of the witnesses to identify the defendant and verify numerous pieces of video evidence. The prosecutor showed surveillance footage of the shooting and surrounding areas taken from a gas station, a grocery store and a metro bus.

Defense attorneys Jason Tulley and Aubrey Dillon did not cross-examine all of the witnesses. But during their questioning of McClam’s neighbor, who first identified McClam as the suspect to police based on images MPD released hours after the shooting, they questioned why he was able to identify McClam from a picture even though it was blurry.

The prosecution is planning to call more witnesses when proceedings pick back up on Dec. 8, including someone from the Department of Forensic Science. The prosecution said that they are expecting to rest their case on Dec. 14.

Document: 17-Year-Old Victim Succumbs to Injuries

Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) investigators are investigating a Dec. 3 homicide.

At approximately 3:42 p.m. officers responded to the 1700 block of Capitol Avenue, NE, due to a report of gunshot sounds. Upon arrival, officers located 17-year-old Larelle Washington with gunshot wounds and transported him to a local hospital.

On Dec. 6 Washington succumbed to his injuries, according to the press release.

Judge Denies Request to Release Murder Defendant From Central Treatment Facility

A murder defendant was denied release from the Central Treatment Facility.

According to court documents, 22-year-old Joseph Simmons sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his back when he was across the street from an elementary school on the 2800 block of Alabama Avenue, SE, on Jan 3. Rashon Hall is charged with first-degree murder while armed in Simmons’ death.

The 26-year-old defendant is being held at the Department of Corrections’ (DOC) Central Treatment Facility and is awaiting indictment.

Defense attorney Dana Page filed an emergency release motion based on conditions of confinement in November, but Judge Danya Dayson denied it. During the Dec. 7 hearing, she renewed her request for Hall’s release.

Page previously told the court that her client informed her of mold growing in his cell. On Dec. 7, a representative for the DOC said after he requested an inspection of Hall’s cell mold was found.

Hall has since been moved to a different cell.

Page argued Hall should still be released. She said she does not have confidence in the DOC’s ability to care for her client’s medical needs, including when it comes to getting him his pain medication. She said in a previous hearing that he was not receiving his daily medication. While Page says he did receive the medication again, she raised doubts over if the DOC could be relied on to consistently give him the medication going forward.

Still, Judge Dayson was unwilling to release Hall.

Instead, he will remain in the facility to await his next hearing on Feb. 25.

Document: Two December 6 Homicides

Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) detectives are investigating two different homicides that occurred on Dec. 6.

At approximately 8:39 p.m. officers responded to the intersection of Suitland Parkway and Stanton Road, SE, due to a report of a shooting. Upon arrival, officers located 27-year-old Stephon Franks and transported him to a local hospital. On Dec. 7 he succumbed to his injuries, according to the press release.

At 11:25 p.m. officers responded to the 1200 block of Mount Olivet Road, NE, due to a report of a shooting. Upon arrival, officers located 21-year-old Derico Justice Miles with gunshot wounds and pronounced him dead on scene, according to the press release.

Judge Pushes for February Indictment in 2020 Murder Case

Prosecutors are aiming to indict a murder defendant by the time of the next scheduled hearing in February.

William Whitaker is charged with first-degree murder while armed in the death of 18-year-old Malick Cisse on Jan. 8, 2020, on the 1300 block of 7th Street, NW.

According to court documents, Cisse walked alone to the area of the Mount Vernon Square Metro station around 11:22 p.m. after a woman believed to be Whitaker’s significant other asked him to meet her on the train. When he arrived, the woman was not there.

As Cisse was walking back to his residence, a suspect believed to be Whitaker drove up in a car and allegedly shot him in the back of the head at approximately 11:31 p.m. Cisse was pronounced dead shortly after midnight.

The woman in the incident was Cisse’s former significant other who had left him to be with Whitaker, according to a video that Whitaker took of Cisse on the metro. In the video, Whitaker is taunting and harassing Cisse with the caption “b**** a** n**** be in they rap you loose shawdy don’t day s*** to me b**** a**” [sic].

In the video, Cisse reportedly told Whitaker he caught him at a time he didn’t have his gun on him, according to court documents.

Twenty minutes after the shooting, Whitaker himself was shot on the 400 block of Chaplin Street, SE, in what MPD believed to be an act of retaliation. Police linked the two incidents using surveillance footage and social media.

The woman in the incident claimed to have not been picking sides between the decedent and the defendant. She said her phone was hacked when Cisse was called to Mount Vernon Metro station, but a police investigation into her Instagram account shows frequency activations, deactivations and group chats in which people are talking about her being the last one to talk to the victim. She not only told MPD she was hacked, she also told her group chats when they asked about the victim’s death.

In November, defense attorney David Benowitz motioned to modify Whitaker’s bond due to what he calls inhumane conditions at the DC Jail. Arguments regarding the motion were made outside open court.

DC Superior Court Judge Milton Lee continued the case to allow prosecutors to work on returning an indictment. Whitaker is expected to return to court on Feb. 6.

Judge Finds Probable Cause in Murder Case

A DC Superior Court judge ruled that the case of a fatal shooting one fall afternoon in Bellevue has enough evidence to go to trial.

Kavel Miller could not waive his right to a preliminary hearing because his competence to stand trial is currently in question and he is being held at St. Elizabeths Hospital, DC’s psychiatric institution. The 21-year-old was found mentally incompetent in two misdemeanor assault cases he picked up before being charged with first-degree murder while armed for allegedly shooting 33-year-old Lester Mangum on the 3900 block of South Capitol Street, SW, on Oct. 8.

The lead Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) detective on the case took the witness stand, explaining the shooting from beginning to end. The detective identified an individual in surveillance footage as Miller.

The prosecutor asked the detective about surveillance video taken before the shooting. The video shows Miller with a group of people nearby the shooting. He leaves the area and goes to a street nearby the shooting, where he starts to follow Mangum to the corner of South Capitol and Atlantic Street. From here, the detective was questioned on multiple different clips of security footage showing different angles of the street corner where Miller allegedly followed Mangum.

Miller “narrowed the distance and quickened his pace,” according to the prosecutor.

A Metrobus security tape was then shown from multiple angles and a gunshot sound was heard on the tape right as Miller was closest to Mangum. The footage shows Miller allegedly getting close to Mangum and brandishing a gun from his side.

“He has his right hand by his side as he is walking by the decedent,” the detective said.

The detective confirmed that when the gunshot happened, both Miller and Magnum ran opposite ways.

Miller ran off, back in the direction he originally came from and Mangum went forward and into a nearby shop where people were standing outside. MPD officers later found Mangum in this shop and transported him to a hospital where he died, according to court documents.

Photos of Miller’s home were shown. These photos show a gold and black hoodie, black and white shoes and black pants that were recovered via a search warrant. The detective was able to confirm that these were the same clothing items worn by Miller in the surveillance tapes.

Defender attorney Errin Scialpi argued that Mangum was fatally shot in self-defense because he had a gun on him at the time of the shooting. There was also no evidence of a relationship between the two, showing a lack of motive for Miller to kill him, Sciapli argued.

The prosecutor rebutted, arguing that if the shooting was self-defense, there would have been evidence Mangum fired his weapon.

Judge Juliet McKenna did not find probable cause and said the idea of self-defense was “simply just not persuasive.”

Scailpi asked for Miller to be released from St. Elizabeths to his live with his family.

“He has a very strong community,” she said, noting how he had a family member in the courtroom’s gallery.

She said Miller was already on supervised release for two misdemeanor assault cases for which he was not in compliance leading up to the shooting so no combination of conditions could ensure safety with his release.

A mental observation hearing for this case is scheduled for Dec. 21.

Parties in Murder Trial Deliver Closing Arguments

Editors Note: The defendant in this case has since been acquitted on all counts.

A murder trial wrapped up with parties delivering their closing arguments.

“He was not going to stop until he was absolutely sure Daniel Parker was dead because he was out for revenge,” the prosecutor said of the defendant, Dewayne Shorter on Dec. 6. The 33-year-old is charged with first-degree murder while armed in Parker’s death on July 26, 2017, on the 2000 block of Fairlawn Avenue, SE.

The prosecutor heavily pushed on Shorter allegedly telling Parker’s brother, “I got bodies, you got bodies” at the scene of the shooting. Parker, 38, had allegedly shot Shorter just a few months prior while he was sitting in a car.

The prosecutor argued that killing Parker was retaliatory and this phrase was an admittance. He also said Shorter’s arm wound should have been healed enough by the time of the shooting for him to hold a gun.

The prosecution continued, saying one of the witnesses was also allegedly told by Parker that if anything happens to him, Shorter was to blame. He said this witness, aligned with multiple others, identified Shorter as a shooter.

Shorter allegedly chased Parker down the street in order to shoot him.

“He was hunting Daniel Parker down,” the prosecutor said.

Both DNA and fingerprint evidence were unavailable to identify Shorter as the shooter. But the prosecutor said, “Not every case has DNA and it doesn’t have to.” He argued that the witnesses’ identification was clear reasoning to point to Parker as the shooter.

“The reasons to doubt are too huge,” defense attorney Jon Norris told the jury during his closing arguments.

Norris argued that the case was built around Parker’s brother’s story, specifically the alleged “I bodies, you got bodies,” statement.

The “case makes no sense, ladies and gentlemen,” Norris said.

Norris said the prosecutor downplayed the identification multiple witnesses gave. They said the shooter was a “light-skinned” individual and compared this to Shorter’s darker complexion.

“When you deliberate, presume Dewayne Shorter innocent,” he finished.

Trial for Man Accused of Murdering 11-Year-Old Begins

Parties delivered their opening arguments in a trial for the man accused of fatally shooting an 11-year-old boy.

Tony McClam is charged with first-degree murder while armed in the death of Karon Brown on July 18, 2019, on the 2700 block of Naylor Road, SE.

Prosecutors say an altercation broke out between two groups of kids, one of whom being McClam’s nephew. The other kids physically assaulted his nephew, and when McClam found out, he told him that they would teach the kids a lesson, according to the prosecution. McClam, 31, allegedly brought a gun to the confrontation, which prosecutors allege was used to shoot Brown.

McClam allegedly bought the gun illegally out-of-state. One of the videos prosecutors admitted into evidence showed Metropolitan Police Department officers searching a witness’ apartment, where they found the gun believed to have been used during the shooting. The video clip showed the gun found in a bag next to children sitting on the couch, which the prosecution intends to use to help determine the timeline of where the gun went after the initial incident.

The second video showed Body Worn Camera footage from a police officer who found a bullet on the child of a witness during a search. The prosecutor said the evidence of the bullet in his pocket corroborates the story a witness gave about handing the gun to her child to let him unjam it.

While defense attorney Jason Tulley agreed that an altercation broke out between a group of kids, including McClam’s nephew, he said the prosecution failed to mention how the other parents were involved. He said the other kids’ parents made the most significant threats towards McClam’s nephew.

Tulley told the jury that McClam did not initially bring a gun when confronting the groups of kids. He only went back to get it when he realized there were grown adults present also making threats. When one of the other parents was leaving, they promised they’d be back with weapons and that is when McClam decided to use his gun, but his intention was only to scare the individual, according to Tulley.

Tulley told the jury that McClam has vision problems in his left eye and did not see a child in the car. So while McClam shot at the vehicle and purposefully avoided hitting the adult, he, unfortunately, ended up striking the child, he argued. McClam’s ophthalmologist is slated to testify as an expert witness within the next two weeks.

The prosecution filed a motion to prevent McClam’s ophthalmologist from testifying as an expert witness. According to prosecutors, because the defense was so late in delivering discovery, they have been unable to find a last-minute ophthalmologist willing to testify as an expert because of concerns over privacy information and patient relationships.

Although the prosecution argued it would bias the jury if one doctor is identified by the court as an expert and the other isn’t, DC Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz denied the motion. He said that while the court won’t identify the doctor as an expert, there are no rules in preventing the prosecution from showing the jury all of his qualifications in order to demonstrate their expertise.

A sergeant with the MPD took the stand to analyze shell casings he collected from the crime scene. The defense asked the sergeant if he was aware that two different shootings took place on the same road earlier in the week. The officer said at the time, his team was unaware of the other shootings because they were out of his jurisdiction and that a different police district covered them.

The defense argued that it is highly possible that evidence between the three shootings such as shell casings and property damage could be miss-matched with the wrong case because they took place so close together.

A member of the Department of Forensic Science is expected to take the witness stand to go over DNA evidence in the case later this week.

Judge Cancels Trial Dates Following Defense Attorney’s Request to Withdraw

A DC Superior Court judge canceled a sex abuse defendant’s upcoming trial dates because he requested a new lawyer.

The 52-year-old defendant is charged with first-degree sexual abuse for allegedly breaking into a woman’s apartment on the 1000 block of North Capitol Street, NE, and sexually assaulting her in March. He had been scheduled to go to trial in January.

During the Dec. 6 hearing, defense attorney Madalyn Harvey said she thinks it’s in the defendant’s best interests that another lawyer represents him. Judge Milton Lee spoke with the defense about the reasoning for this outside of open court.

After the ex parte meeting, Judge Lee said there has been a breakdown in communication between Harvey and the defendant and he intends to grant Harvey’s request to withdraw.

Judge Lee also cancelled the upcoming trial dates so that the defendant’s new attorney will have more time to get acquainted with the case.

Parties are now slated to reconvene for an ascertainment of counsel hearing on Dec. 13.

Document: Suspect Arrested in 76-Year-Old Man’s Death

A suspect was arrested for second-degree murder in connection with the death of 76-year-old Luther Brooks.

According to a press release, at approximately 2:10 p.m. on Sept. 28, Metropolitan Police Department officers responded to the 1300 block of Kalmia Road, NW, for the report of a possible assault. There, they found Brooks suffering from injuries consistent with assault. He was taken to a hospital, but succummed to his injuries on Oct. 8.

Two days later, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the cause of death to be multiple blunt force trauma injuries. Brooks’ death was ruled a homicide.

Clifton Brown, 57, was arrested on Dec. 6.

Sex Abuse Case Heads to Grand Jury Following Plea Deal Rejection

A sex abuse defendant rejected a plea offer on Dec. 6.

The 34-year-old defendant is charged with two counts of first-degree sexual abuse.

The prosecution offered the defendant the option to plead down to one count of attempted first-degree sexual abuse. But with the offer rejected, the prosecutor is now slated to work on securing an indictment.

D.C. Witness previously reported that the victim and defendant originally met at a wedding. The victim and her boyfriend were driving the defendant home from the wedding when they got into a car accident that led to a physical altercation between the victim’s boyfriend and the other drivers. The boyfriend got arrested at the scene. Later, the victim and the defendant drove back to his home where he then allegedly sexually assaulted her.

The defendant is currently released into the High Intensity Supervision Program. DC Superior Court Judge Milton Lee allowed him to travel to Pennsylvania for the holidays. He also allowed the defendant not to be penalized for curfew violations related to work travel.

Document: December 5 Homicide

Metropolitan Police Department detectives are investigating a fatal shooting that happened on Dec. 5.

According to a press release, at approximately 2:00 p.m., officers responded to the 1100 block of Eastern Avenue, NE, for the sound of gunshots. There, they found 24-year-old Raychelle Freeman in a vehicle suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Freeman was pronounced dead on scene.

Defense Challenges Use of Video Evidence in Preparation for Murder Trial

A defense attorney challenged a prosecutor’s decision to use certain video evidence in an upcoming murder trial.

Tony McClam is charged with first-degree murder while armed in the shooting of 11-year-old Karon Brown on July 18, 2019, on the 2700 block of Naylor Road, SE.

Defense attorney Jason Tulley argued during the Dec. 1 hearing that videos and images the prosecution planned on using during the trial would sway the jury to find prejudice against 31-year-old McClam.

Tulley showed two videos the prosecutor intended to use. In one of the videos, the police searched a witness’ apartment found a gun allegedly used during the shooting.

The video clip showed the gun was found in a bag next to children sitting on the couch. Tulley said that the jury might associate McClam with letting the gun be in a space where children are present and hold it against him.

The prosecutor argued that the video is relevant because it adds to the timeline of where the gun traveled from the time of the shooting. The witness found the defendant’s gun in her bag and presumably brought it to the residence they were staying in, the prosecutor said, so the gun being retrieved near children does not involve McClam.

The other video from the prosecutor showed Body Worn Camera footage of a police officer who found a bullet on the child of the witness during a search. Tulley said this is not relevant and “advances the case in no way.”

The prosecutor said the evidence of the bullet in his pocket corroborates the story the witness gave about handing the gun to her child to let him unjam it.

“There’s no way to take kids out of the case,” the prosecutor said, “the government has a right to present evidence in the manner it unfolds.” They said they are modernizing the system by showing the video instead of telling the jury what took place.

Judge Neal Kravitz said there is relevance and the prejudicial effect is diminished because the defendant was locked up before the gun was found. Judge Kravitz mentioned the prosecution has the right to show where the gun was found.

The prosecutor was required to blur the image of the child in handcuffs during the video at Judge Kravitz’s orders and Tulley’s request.

Judge Kravitz said there is no evidence McClam asked the witness to put the gun in the residence it was found and he didn’t see the connection of how there was an unfair risk to McClam since the bullet retrieved corroborates the witness’s testimony.

However, Judge Kravitz encouraged the prosecutor to think again about showing the video of the child being searched by police. He denied both motions filed by the defense and allowed the videos to be used as evidence for the prosecution during the trial resuming on Dec. 6.

Document: Homicide in Southeast, DC

Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) detectives are investigating a homicide that happened on Dec. 4.

According to a press release, at approximately 1:11 a.m., officers responded to the 4400 block of Falls Terrace, SE, for the report of a shooting. There, they found 40-year-old Willie Spain, Jr. suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead on scene.

Document: Multiple Arrests Made in Homicides

Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) detectives have made three arrests in relation to three different homicides.

Around 11:30 p.m. on July 19, police found 37-year-old Rayfone Gassaway unconscious and suffering from gunshot wounds on the 3400 block of Stanton Road, SE. Emergency Medical Services determined that the victim showed no signs of life.

At approximately 4:58 p.m. on Nov. 5, officers arrived at the 3500 block of Minnesota Avenue, SE, due to a report of a shooting. Upon arrival, officers located 26-year-old Anthony Depetris with gunshot wounds and transported him to a local hospital. He later succumbed to his injuries, according to the press release.

On Dec. 3, officers arrested 24-year-old Georgio Hyles and charged him with first-degree murder while armed, according to the press release.

On Dec. 2 officers arrested 19-year-old Earl Isaac, III and charged him with second-degree murder while armed in relation to the homicide, according to the press release.

At approximately 11:27 a.m. on Dec. 3. officers responded to the Unit block of Elmira Street, SW, due to a burglary. Upon arrival, officers located 71-year-old Sylvia Matthews with trauma and transported her to a local hospital. On Dec. 4 she succumbed to her injuries, according to the press release.

On Dec. 3, officers arrested 66-year-old Michael Garrett and charged him with assault with intent to kill, according to the press release.

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