Seth Sinquan Holmes was arrested Tuesday and charged with the murder of Damonta Thompson.
Police announced Thompson’s death was the result of a gunshot wound. Thompson was found around 2:00 p.m. in early May, on the 100 block of Irvington St, SW.
More than a month later, Holmes was charged with second-degree murder while armed.
Police have announced an arrest in the murder of 23-year-old Leonte Cox.
Cox was stabbed June 17 and died from his injuries on June 26. The following day, police arrested and charged Kimberly Shaw with second-degree murder while armed.
Cox was found in the 1600 block of R St., SE.
[documentcloud url=”http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3878601-Police-report.html” responsive=true]
Police are investigating the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old male, Zaan Scott.
Scott was found suffering from a gunshot wound on the evening of April 9, around 9:00 p.m., on the 1300 block of Southern Ave., SE.
When emergency workers arrived they transported Scott to an area hospital, where he stayed until he died from his injuries over one month later on May 17.
Scott was then transported to the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore another month later, on June 26, where his dead was pronounced a homicide.
Police have not yet released any suspect information.
A man charged with murder requested a transfer out of the DC jail due to extreme heat, which was denied, at least temporarily.
William Smith, charged with the murder of Dominic Brooks, had asked to be transferred due to the high temperatures in his cell. In previous summers, attorneys have made similar requests as DC experienced heat waves.
Judge Lynn Leibovitz said that due to the charges brought against Smith he can’t be transferred to the Correctional Treatment Facility, but they could look at a potential transfer somewhere else but that will have to wait until the next hearing.
The next hearing is scheduled for June 27.
Reginald Parks was fatally shot June 19, 2017.
[documentcloud url=”http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3877992-Reginald-Parks-homicide-reward-flier.html” responsive=true]
Jason Dale was fatally shot on June 12, 2017.
[documentcloud url=”http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3866484-Jason-Dale-homicide-reward-flier.html” responsive=true]
Police are investigating the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Julius Leroy Foreman.
Foreman was found fatally shot a little after midnight on June 14. When he was found by police, Foreman was suffering from what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds.
Police have not yet released any suspect information.
The trial for Delonte Wynn finally boiled down to closing statements on Wednesday afternoon.
Only one witness was called for the defense before the end of the trial. Wynn is charged with the murder of Darlene Bryant.
Kaleb Berhane works for Wynn’s attorney in the Superior Court, where he is a primary defense investigator. His job was crucial to the defense since he was the one to get statements from key witnesses. One of the most controversial testimonies in this case was that of Donnell Howard, who has been accused of changing his story in order to shorten his current sentence and receive a reward of $25,000. Howard claimed on the stand that if any parts of his earlier testimonies didn’t match up it was because Berhane rushed him. During his testimony, however, Berhane claimed that he never rushed Howard and gave him the option to leave at any point throughout the interview.
Berhane was the only witness called by the defense, leaving the jury without any statement from the suspect, Wynn. Wynn remained silent in his seat throughout the entirety of the trial other than to introduce himself every morning to the judge and the jury.
The prosecution gave a closing statement, going through every single testimony and piece of evidence that had been brought to the courtroom. Their interpretation of the evidence claims that Bryant’s murder was pre-meditated. They referred to text threads and phone calls between Wynn, his girlfriend, and Bryant. Although Wynn’s girlfriend claims that Wynn was calm in the moments leading up to Bryant’s death, the prosecution argues the opposite. The video footage from the Geraldine Apartments catches an assumed-to-be Wynn walking towards the complex and then running away from it moments later. The DNA samples from the crime scene, while not matching Wynn, do not entirely suggest his absence since he did not have to touch her to stab her, the prosecution said. As for Howard’s testimony, the prosecution used evidence from the scene of the crime to corroborate his story — $4 and a lemonade bottle, which Howard claims to have bought for her moments before she was killed. Additionally, the prosecution emphasized the agreements made with both Howard and Charles King to reassure the jury that the two witnesses would not lie on the stand since they have to tell the truth to receive any benefits. The prosecution ended their statement by begging the jury to look at the evidence, to use “common sense” and to put Wynn in prison.
The defense, on the other hand, did not go through the evidence piece by piece. The testimonies given by Howard and King were the focal point of this closing statement, claiming that without these two “stories,” there is no evidence to convict Wynn — no DNA and no motive. As before, Wynn’s attorneys targeted the motives of Howard and King, trying to strip away legitimacy of each testimony. Howard claimed to have overheard an angry phone call conversation between Wynn and Bryant. The defense drew from this testimony, finding that the phone records show no phone call between the two. The defense emphasized the inconsistencies and begged the jury to keep an innocent man out of jail.
During these closing statements, different reactions came from the audience. The prosecution put a scowl on Wynn’s mother’s face. The defense left the mother of Darlene Bryant frustrated. When approached, Dolores Bryant said “I just want to leave this all behind when it’s over.”
The D.C. Police are investigating the fatal shooting of 51-year-old Reginald Parks.
Parks was found in the 300 block of 54th St. NE, on June 19 a little after 10 a.m. Parks was found suffering from what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds and was declared dead.
Police have not yet released any suspect information.
Police are investigating the fatal shooting of Jason Antonio Dale, 33, of Southeast D.C.
Dale was discovered by police around 9:30 pm June 12, on the 500 block of Parkland Place, SE. Police, who were responding to a report of a shooting, found Dale in an alley.
He was taken to a hospital where he died from his injuries.
Police are investigating the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Malik Hill.
Hill, along with two other victims were discovered around 10:43 p.m. on June 16, on the 2700 block of Langston Place, SE. The police, responding to a report of a shooting, found two adult males and a juvenile male suffering from gunshot wounds. All of the victims were transported to the hospital.
Hill was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Murder suspect Jonathan Taylor testified at his own trial, accused of the murder of Dexter Motley.
On the stand, Taylor told of his own version of events in August 2014, when Motley was killed.
Taylor said on the night of Motley’s murder he borrowed a car from someone he was romantically involved with and went to a friends house. There, the friends drank and hung out. Later, a friend asked to borrow the car to get more liquor. When he returned, Taylor said his friend told him he had just killed someone he was fighting with.
A few days later Taylor went over to a different romantic interest’s house and said he told her that one of his friends had just killed someone.
Taylor also admitted that he lied to detectives on several occasions because he didn’t want to involve himself with. He mainly denied knowing many associates of the Oxford Manor and using the car or knowing of the owner of the car.
In the government’s closing statements they emphasized the importance of finding accountability for Motley’s death, and addressed any inconsistencies in witness credibility and statements as human error. Though Taylor may not be the one who killed Motley, he was still involved, and is as guilty as the person who pulled the trigger.
The defense attacked the credibility of most of the government’s witnesses. The defense also argued that there was no evidence to put their client at the scene of the murder, and argued that Taylor’s appearance was not the same as the one described by witnesses.
Over a year ago, three men were charged with the murder of Matthew Shlonsky. The victim was caught in crossfire as he was exiting a car in the Shaw neighborhood.
On Monday morning, suspects Andrew Dudley, Christopher Proctor, and Marcus King sat shackled in the courtroom while attorneys debated pushing the trial date further back. While the prosecution requested to delay the trial, each defense attorney asked that they consider how long the suspects have been held already.
When told that King wants to testify on behalf of Proctor, the defense and the prosecution could not come to terms on whether or not to try the three men separately. Judge Lynn Leibovitz argued that trying all men together and hearing testimonies from suspects for another suspect would confuse blame and, ultimately, confuse the jury. The issue also arose that some statements are only admissible against one suspect and not all three, which would further complicate the case in the eyes of the jurors.
The defense made a last request before the hearing came to an end, asking that the judge separate the suspects in prison. Leibovitz refused, saying it is not her role to intervene in prison placement.
Leibovitz asked that she be given more time to study the case and follow up on July 14.
As the trial for Delonte Wynn continued Tuesday, the courtroom’s seats filled to the brim with family and spectators.
Attorneys began Tuesday morning, arguing over the legitimacy of witness Chester Taplette’s testimony. After deciding that everything was admissible in court, Judge Bush assured the defense that if the prosecution used Taplette’s words in their closing statement the issue could be reconsidered.
A main focus of the prosecution’s argument has revolved around a text thread between Wynn, his child’s mother, and Bryant. An expert witness helped to identify messages from Bryant that may have been purposefully deleted by Wynn, but the defense argues Wynn deleted messages on a regular basis from many people.
Charles King has been brought up on numerous occasions in previous testimonies, but his role as a witness has been unknown to the jury until Tuesday when he took the stand. On May 13, the witness passed Wynn as he walked in ahead of him on the sidewalk, heading for the Geraldine Apartments. From his view, King said it was difficult to see if a mask covered Wynn’s face. Shortly after following Wynn into the apartment building and parting ways, though, did the witness see an assumed-to-be Wynn walking back down the stairs. King claims that he knew it was Wynn because his clothes were the same as before, with the exception of a new accessory – the mask.
King sat in shackles and an orange jumpsuit as he spoke to the jury. The defense accused King of saying whatever needed to be said to convict Wynn and receive a shorter sentence since he had previously been caught on record lying in court. King denied all allegations of corroborating the same story with Howard, and of receiving a bribe. In the end, the prosecution went so far as to review the agreement that had been made, to reassure the jury of King’s story.
The final witness called by the prosecution was Travis Barton, the homicide detective in charge of the case. When he arrived at the scene of the crime on May 13, Barton testified he saw none of the witnesses mentioned other than the suspect, who was spotted in the parking lot behind the Geraldine Apartments. Since the day of Bryant’s death, he has personally talked to all witnesses, and all of those able to identified Wynn from a photo line-up.
On Tuesday morning the defense expressed concern that the jurors may not be able to focus due to the heat, questioning their ability to come to a fully-informed verdict. Wynn’s trial will resume Wednesday morning.
