Prosecutor Says He Tried to Obtain Missing Footage

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After a defense team filed a motion to dismiss a murder case, the prosecution tried to prove that counsel did everything possible to obtain all of the potential evidence.

Deon Crowell, 50, is charged with first-degree murder while armed for allegedly stabbing Joni Rockingham, 53, on the 300 block of 34th Street, NE on Dec. 12, 2017.

D.C. Witness previously reported that the defense team, Rachel McCoy and Elizabeth Weller, would be filing a motion to dismiss the case because of the prosecutions inability to preserve evidence.

The prosecution called several witnesses who were all police officers. Apparently, the officers searched for Rockingham when she went missing in Nov. 2017. The motions hearing, which began on Oct. 16, continued on Nov. 26 and Nov. 27.

The prosecutor also said he found some of the footage that was believed to be missing and disclosed it to the defense team. However, there was still a large amount missing which was why the hearing had to be held.

All of the officers wore body cameras and were recording while canvasing DC for the whereabouts of Rockingham. But, all the officers that testified had their footage erased due to the retention time on body cam footage with the specific tag of “incident no arrest.”

There have been 14 total officers who have testified thus far, who were almost all police recruits when Rockingham disappeared and was found murdered.

The prosecutor said he plans to call more police officers at the next hearing most of whom have also had their police footage erased from that time period.

The motions hearing is set to continue on Jan. 15, 2020.

Jaylin Hawkins wrote this article.