The Metropolitan Police Department is currently investigating a fatal stabbing on the 400 block of Southern Avenue, SE.
On July 22, police found 22-year-old Ivey Coleman suffering from multiple stab wounds. He died on the scene.
A reward of up to $25,000 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the case or any other homicide in DC.
Four months after being found not guilty, a man accused of murder was allowed to opt out of the High Intensity Supervision Program (HISP).
“He’s been a model on HISP,” said DC Superior Court Judge Ronna Beck. “He’s been totally in compliance.”
Demetrius Brandon was charged with first-degree murder while armed for the shooting death of Marcus Manor on the 2900 block of Sherman Avenue, NW in 2015. His co-defendant, Kevin Chase, later admitted to shooting Manor, 38, in self-defense. Brandon was found not guilty of first-degree murder and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence.
Judge Beck said Brandon’s participation in Project Empowerment, a job training program, and the fact that Brandon promptly reinstalled his GPS locator after returning from his sister’s wedding in Las Vegas justified her decision to take him off HISP. Brandon will continue to be randomly drug tested but will not have a curfew.
According to the prosecution, Brandon, who was 29 at the time of the incident, and Chase premeditated Manor’s murder. However, the defense argued that Chase thought Manor was reaching for a gun on the day of the incident. Defense attorneys said Manor was known for his violent behavior and that Chase acted out of fear. Apparently, Manor and Chase’s sister were involved in a violent relationship.
Brandon was implicated in the homicide after picking Chase up at a nearby gas station, according to defense attorneys. Defense attorneys said Brandon was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. A jury was not able to reach a unanimous decision on whether Brandon should be convicted as an accessory after the fact in an assault with the intent to kill. The jury could also not agree on whether Chase was guilty of murder. Both men are scheduled for another trial on their unresolved charges on Jan. 29, 2019.
A trial readiness hearing is scheduled on Jan. 18, 2019.
After serving more than a year on the High Intensity Supervision Program (HISP), defense counsel requested that a murder defendant be released under personal recognizance.
Taron Oliver is charged with first-degree murder while armed for allegedly shooting his stepfather, Nathaniel Williams, on the 3100 block of 20th Street, SE in 1995. According to court documents, Williams, 41, sustained five gunshot wounds to the head. Williams and Oliver’s mother were involved in a romantic relationship. Allegedly there was a history of domestic violence between the two. Oliver was arrested in 2016, nearly 20 years after the murder took place.
DC Superior Court Judge Craig Iscoe determined Oliver, 43, was completely compliant with his release conditions. Oliver has been held on HISP since March 2017.
Because the prosecution changed attorneys, the new prosecutor told Judge Iscoe he does not yet know enough about Oliver’s situation to make a statement about his release on personal recognizance. He said he expects to have a decision within the next two weeks.
Defense counsel said they will have a written motion for release by the next status hearing, scheduled on Aug. 2. Oliver’s jury trial is scheduled on Sept. 16, 2019.
On July 20, a murder defendant was sentenced to 33 years in prison for two counts of second-degree murder while armed.
David Bright, who initially pled guilty to shooting his roommates, was finally sentenced after changing his plea two times. In 2016, Bright, 31, shot his roommates, Clifton Francis, 51, and David Watkins Jr., 45, on the 500 block of 58th Street, NE.
Bright’s defense attorney asked DC Superior Court Judge Ronna Beck to recommend that Bright be sent to a prison known for making mental health services available to inmates. After a sentencing in May, Bright’s mother claimed that her son did not receive adequate services for his mental health issues while he was being detained.
Prosecutors said they would not have a problem with this, and Judge Beck agreed to suggest an “appropriate institution.”
Bright will serve five additional years on supervised release following his prison term.
After appealing his case, a former member of the U.S. Marine Corps is scheduled to receive a shorter sentence after pleading guilty to a fatal stabbing.
Michael Poth pled guilty July 20 to voluntary manslaughter. According to his plea agreement, Poth could receive a sentence of up to seven and a half years in prison. In 2013, he was initially sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison for voluntary manslaughter while armed for stabbing Philip Bushong, who was a lance corporal in the Marines, on the 700 block of 8th Street, SE. Poth was a private first class before the incident.
Bushong, 23, called Poth, 26, a “boot,” which is a slang term used to identify an inexperienced military recruit. Poth considered the term derogatory. Poth called Bushong a “faggot,” and after a verbal altercation, stabbed Bushong with a pocket knife. According to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the men did not know each other.
After serving his term, Poth will also be required to serve five additional years on supervised release. The judge said Poth would receive credit for time he’s already served since his sentencing in 2013.
Poth’s case was reopened after a juror failed to disclose that he was a registered sex offender. In light of the violation, Poth appealed the conviction and received a new trial. Poth accepted the plea days before his July 23 trial was scheduled to begin.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 17.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police Department arrested July 20 Bernard McKinney.
McKinney, 17, is suspected of fatally shooting Daymond Chicas on June 11. Chicas, 24, died at a local hospital from gunshot wounds on June 12.
According to the DC Courts, McKinney’s presentment took place on July 21. He is being charged as an adult for first-degree murder while armed.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 31.
Follow D.C. Witness for updates on the case.
The Metropolitan Police Department is currently investigating a fatal shooting that occurred on the 300 block of Rhode Island Avenue, NE on July 20.
James Tyrone Eaton, 26, was found in a residence suffering from gunshot wounds. Eaton died on the scene.
Up to a $25,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the case or any other homicide case in DC.
The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating a fatal stabbing that occurred on the 1500 block of 19th Street, SE on July 19.
According to police, 44-year-old Lusharone Nicholson was found inside a residence suffering from apparent stab wounds.
Up to a $25,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction for this homicide or any other homicide in DC. Nicholson died on the scene.
After deliberating for three days, a jury found three men guilty of murder.
Charles McRae, Willie Glover and Joseph Barbour killed Lenard Wills in an apartment on the 700 block of 24th Street, NE.
McRae was found guilty of felony murder while armed under aggravated circumstances, burglary one while armed, attempt to commit robbery while armed, assault with intent to commit robbery while armed and simple assault. He was found not guilty of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Barbour,38, was found guilty of felony murder while armed under aggravated circumstances, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, burglary one while armed, attempt to commit robbery while armed, assault with intent to commit robbery while armed, unlawful possession with a prior conviction, assault with a dangerous weapon and simple assault. Barbour was found not guilty of carrying a pistol with a prior felony.
Glover, 40, was found guilty of felony murder while armed under aggravating circumstances, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, burglary one while armed, attempt to commit robbery while armed, assault with intent to commit robbery while armed and assault with a dangerous weapon. He was found not guilty of carrying a pistol without a license.
What Happened?
One night in 2015, witnesses said three men stormed into the crowded apartment demanding money. When the chaos subsided, Wills, 50, was dead.
According to court documents and testimony from several witnesses, on the day of the incident, McRae and Wills’ girlfriend argued about money. Witnesses said McRae then left the apartment.
According to witness testimony, Wills was sitting at the dining room table smoking a cigarette and drinking beer before the robbers entered.
Another witness said McRae shouted “you know what time it is!” as he came back to the apartment with Barbour and Glover who were wearing masks. “Get out the way-this has nothing to do with you,” McRae told the people near Wills. The men demanded money from Wills and beat him with their guns.
A witness, who said he often acted as the apartment’s unofficial “doorman,” identified Barbour and Glover.
According to witness testimony, when the men began beating Wills, he swung a knife at them. McRae then grabbed a knife from a drying rack in the kitchen, walked over to the scuffle and stabbed Wills.
Wills was apparently speaking and moving around for some time after the stabbing. He asked to be taken to the hospital, then asked for someone to call an ambulance.
“I ain’t gonna make it drivin’,” Wills said according to a witness.
Another witness said he saw Glover get in his van and speed off after the attack. Soon after the incident, a speed-camera snapped a picture of Glover’s license plate.
The Metropolitan Police Department arrived to find people fleeing the building, blood in the hallway and Wills lying on the apartment floor, his breathing labored.
A medical examiner confirmed the cause of Wills’ death was multiple stab wounds to the torso. The examiner also found blunt-force injuries caused by a small or medium-sized heavy objecton Wills’ head and face.
DNA taken from the living room floor was a mixture from three individuals. The only person who could be identified by DNA testing was Barbour, who was stabbed during the incident.
MPD recovered a knife covered in Barbour’s blood. During trial, a forensic analyst testified that she could not be sure if the knife was used to kill Wills. She said it was possible that a kitchen knife was used instead.
Another man, arrested for crossing police lines near where Barbour was detained, had a kitchen knife slung through his waistband. The knife was never tested as a potential murder weapon. The man was not charged in connection to the murder.
Samuel Delgado, Barbour’s defense attorney, said his client was an innocent victim of the attack, and the real third attacker “ran from (the apartment) into the night forevermore.”
Delgado urged jurors to disregard the witnesses’ testimonies. “They had been binging on crack cocaine and heroin for days,” the attorney said. “Those witnesses were malleable as a lump of clay… (The lead detective) began to mold his own version of the truth.”
Delgado also complained that some witnesses, who claimed to want to do the right thing by testifying, had not voluntarily spoken to police after the incident. He said the witnesses came forward after being detained for other crimes.
Delgado said witnesses gossiped with each other, corrupting their own memories of what happened and creating false narratives in the minds of people who were not actually there.
During his closing argument, McRae’s attorney, Elliott Queen, cited a witness who he said was more reliable than the others because she held a steady job at the U.S. Post Office. That witness said she did not recognize the unmasked robber, who others identified as McRae, despite being a regular at the apartment.
Queen said his client’s relationship with Wills and his girlfriend was friendly. According to Queen, when McRae and Wills argued, it was usually about sports, specifically “a quarterback controversy.”
“What this evidence clearly shows… Is that Mr. McRae went to (the apartment) to get high (and) walked in at the wrong time,” Queen said.
Closing statements concluded on July 12, three weeks after the trial began on June 19.
The co-defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 14.
A man who pled guilty to murder may have violated his plea agreement by possibly lying while under oath during another murder trial.
Paul Swann is currently on trial for second-degree murder while armed for the death of Adam Barker on the 2700 block of Langston Place, SE in 2016. According to court documents, Barker, 21, was approached by Swann, 24; Traveous Brown; and one other person after a brief verbal altercation. Swann and Brown then allegedly shot at Barker.
Brown, 28, pled guilty to second-degree murder while armed on June 14 for his involvement with Barker’s death. His sentence for the murder would run concurrent to the 27 years Brown received for an unrelated robbery conviction in Virginia.
Even though Brown pled guilty, he still implicated Swann in the murder. “Swann pulled out a gun and decided to shoot Barker,” Brown told the jury. Brown said he pulled out his gun as well and shot twice at Barker’s friend, a man called “Juice.”
During cross-examination, Brown denied killing Barker. He said Swann was the one who killed him. Under his plea agreement, Brown could receive a lighter sentence for testifying.
During trial on July 19, while the jury was out, the prosecution played three phone calls from March 30, 2016, after Swann was arrested. During these calls, Swann told his grandmother about his concerns over Brown.
“They’re lying on me… I did not do this,” Swann told his grandmother. Swann was first arrested on a robbery charge in Virginia on March 8, 2016. Swann said he was “aware of the damage [Brown] can do.”
DC Superior Court Judge Ronna Beck told counsel that it’s unclear whether the cooperation Swann discussed in the calls referred to the robbery charges or Barker’s murder. Judge Beck said she has not made a decision about whether the calls would be admitted as relevant evidence.
Swann’s trial is scheduled to proceed to closing arguments on July 23.
During a hearing July 11, a DC Superior Court judge questioned an interruption in a murder defendant’s tracking device.
Per the terms of a plea agreement, Kimberly Shaw pleaded guilty Feb. 1 to voluntary manslaughter for the stabbing death of Leonte Cox, 23, on the 1600 block of R Street, SE, in 2017. Shaw, 35, is currently released under the High Intensity Supervision Program (HISP).
Shaw’s GPS monitor apparently had an interruption which concerned her case manager. Pretrial services told Judge Danya Dayson that Shaw’s GPS battery was not properly charged and expired. Pretrial services said this was also due to her being in a hospital from June 20 to June 27.
Defense counsel told Judge Dayson that Shaw has been reporting for drug testing, and will continue to report to her case manager.
According to the District Attorney’s Office the case was transfered from DC to Maryland.
D.C. Witness was not able to verify the terms of Shaw’s plea agreement.
During closing arguments July 18, the defense and prosecution debated the validity of two witness testimonies that implicated the murder defendant.
Kelby Gordon is charged with first-degree murder while armed for allegedly shooting Gabriel Carlos Turner on the 2600 block of Birney Place, SE in early 2016. According to the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Turner, 46, was shot in the back and the bullet traveled to his head.
The prosecution called two witnesses, the defendant’s ex-girlfriend and a cooperating witness who is awaiting sentencing for an unrelated second-degree murder conviction. The witnesses said Gordon, 32, confessed to shooting someone during a robbery gone wrong.
The prosecutor said that despite the fact that the witnesses never met, both gave the same story. Both said Gordon saw the money, acted on impulse, shot an innocent man, had a Glock pistol and ran to his ex-girlfriend’s apartment.
“He tried to rob someone and it went wrong,” the ex-girlfriend said. She apparently told police that Gordon saw the decedent with cash and wanted to take it.
The prosecutor showed the surveillance video of the shooting and pointed out how the victim is shot in the back and instantly collapses while the shooter runs away. Several cameras follow Gordon’s flight path to the apartment where his ex-girlfriend lived.
“The only one with a gun behind Gabriel Turner, the only one behind him period is Kelby Gordon,” the prosecution told the jury.
The prosecutor said this was not a case of mistaken identity as the defense argued. “The path that law enforcement took, led them straight to the defendant (Gordon),” she said.
During his closing statement, Defense Attorney Richard Holliday repeated the case’s lack of forensic evidence.
Holliday said the government is relying on two witnesses, one who is fabricating a story to get a lighter sentence and the other to receive witness protection benefits. The ex-girlfriend, “ended up making a lot of lemonade out of some really bitter lemons,” Holliday said.
Although there is video that clearly shows two shooters, “you will never know conclusively who shot the fatal shot,” he said.
The jury is scheduled to deliberate on July 19.
New evidence offered by the defense contradicts what a witness said during his testimony in a murder trial.
Paul Swann is charged with second-degree murder while armed for allegedly shooting Adam Barker on the 2700 block of Langston Place, SE in 2016. According to court documents, Swann, 24; Traveous Brown, and one other unidentified person approached Barker, 21, after a verbal altercation. The documents state that Swann and Brown shot at Barker. Swann was arrested shortly after Barker’s death for an unrelated gun charge.
On July 16, Mani Golzari, Swann’s attorney, asked a person, whom the prosecution says witnessed the murder if he used a law enforcement database known as Justis to identify Swann. The eyewitness denied ever using the database to research Swann.
Justis keeps records of alleged offenders. The database also monitors use. On July 17, Golzari gave the court a record that showed the eyewitnesses logged onto the system prior to being asked to identify the suspect. Golzari said the witness used the database to get a profile of Swann.
According to the witness’s testimony, he was in his van, which was within 15 feet of the altercation, when it occurred. The witness told a police officer minutes after the shooting that the suspect was a black male with dreadlocks who wore a black jacket. The witness later said the suspect displayed a scowl before the shooting.
During cross-examination, Golzari asked the witness how it was that he could see the suspect’s scowl, but couldn’t see Swann’s face tattoos. Apparently, the witness only told detectives about the tattoos after he logged into the database.
Defense counsel told the jury during their opening arguments July 16 that the only eyewitness of the crime was unreliable because the incident allegedly happened within a matter of seconds, and as such, he couldn’t tell who actually committed the crime.
During a felony status conference, a prosecutor argued that a 16-year-old murder defendant should be held in jail and not at a youth rehabilitation facility.
Titus Iracks is charged with first-degree murder while armed for allegedly shooting Larry Harrell on the 1200 block of Mount Olivet Road, NE on June 13. According to court documents, police found Harrell, 43, lying in a parking lot suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. Harrell was pronounced dead on the scene.
Iracks, who was charged as an adult, is currently being held in the DC Jail, according to the DC Department of Corrections.
On July 17, the prosecution told DC Superior Court Judge Danya Dayson that based on her substantial probability finding, DC law mandates that Iracks be held in jail. The prosecutor said the allegations against Iracks make him a danger to the population if he is housed at New Beginnings, a male youth development facility in Maryland. She also said New Beginnings was not prepared to care for additional youths and that there were complaints from staff about safety.
New Beginnings Senior Deputy Director Linda Harper told Judge Dayson that New Beginnings is fully prepared to care for Iracks and said that when he was previously housed there, for an unrelated case, he was not a “troublemaker.” She also said there is a range of feelings among the staff about the possibility of a population increase, but that New Beginnings currently houses less than 20 youth even though its present funding allows for 60.
Iracks’ defense attorney, Ronald Resetarits, argued that his client should be transferred to the youth facility not only because of the educational and vocational services made available there but because of the law. According to the Comprehensive Youth Justice Amendment Act of 2016 , DC Jail will be required to transfer all juveniles to the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services by Oct. 1.
“He’s going to be locked up, it’s just a better place,” Resetarits said. “We want him to be better for the future. Not scarred from incarceration.”
Judge Dayson said she would need to conduct further research before making her ruling.
Iracks is scheduled for a felony status conference on July 27.
The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the shooting death of a 26-year-old Washington, DC resident in the Southeast section of the city.
According to a press release, officers found Cheyenne Washington suffering from multiple gunshot wounds on the 4400 block of E Street, SE. He apparently lived in the neighborhood. According to the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Washington died on the scene.
The Washington Post reports that the MPD has not identified a suspect or motive in the case.
A reward of up to $25,000 is currently being offerred for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in this homicide or any other homicide in DC.
As of July 19, there have been 84 homicides in DC in 2018. Ten of those homicides have occurred since the summer began on June 21, according to D.C. Witness data.
