On Nov. 13, nearly an hour after opening arguments for a murder trial were scheduled to begin, a DC Superior Court judge notified the jury that a trial wouldn’t begin until next year because one of the prosecutors had a “severe family emergency.”
Terik McLeod is charged with first-degree murder while armed for allegedly shooting Devaun Drayton and Carlton Fisher on the 700 block of 26th Street, NE and on the 1100 block of 21st Street, NE, respectively. Fisher, who was killed in 2006, was apparently a witness to Drayton’s homicide in 2004.
According to the prosecution, another attorney wouldn’t be prepared to take on the case on such short notice. As a result, Judge Ronna Beck scheduled the trial to resume on March 25, 2019.
McLeod’s defense attorneys, Bruce Cooper and Michael Madden, requested their client be released because of the delay. According to the defense, McLeod would be detained for nearly two years by the time of the new trial date.
Judge Beck denied the defense’s request because of McLeod’s prior firearm convictions and because he is an “extreme risk” to public safety.
