Prosecutor, Witness Clash Over Grand Jury Testimony in Murder Trial

By Graham Krewinghaus [former] , Jennifer Ollmann [former] - November 14, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Documents | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

The prosecution in a Nov. 10 murder trial brought out a Grand Jury transcript of a witness’s previous testimony when he described diving to the ground after hearing gunshots go off, despite his repeated insistence that he now remembers nothing about the incident.

On Aug. 10, 2017, according to court documents, around a dozen shots went off at the intersection of Saratoga and Montana Avenues, NE, one of which struck and killed 17-year-old Jamahri Sydnor. James Mayfield and Robert Moses, both 23, face 13 and 25 counts, respectively, including first-degree murder and charges for weapon possession among others in relation to the incident. 

A long-time native of the Saratoga neighborhood, who had returned on Aug. 10, 2017, to help out his grandmother and to celebrate his upcoming birthday was the only disagreeable witness out of the four who testified on Thursday.

The prosecutor told the jury that the witness overheard the shots that day, and instinctively dove to the ground.

The witness, however, was consistently resistant to providing testimony about the day. “Let’s just get this over with,” he muttered when Judge Raffinan first addressed him.

“I don’t wanna be here,” he told the prosecutor soon after, in direct examination. He had to be subpoenaed, he explained, and was forcibly brought to the courthouse for the trial.

The prosecutor produced his testimony to the Grand Jury in July 2018 ahead of Moses and Mayfield’s indictments. The witness repeatedly said he did not remember what he told the Grand Jury, and grew visibly frustrated as the prosecutor attempted to refresh his memory.

He said that on the day he testified, he was “snatched from the jail,” where he had been held pending unrelated charges. “Same type of Marshals that snatched me off the streets and made me come here,” the witness added.

The witness returned to the stand on the next trial day to finish his testimony.

The first witnesses called by the prosecutors during Thursday’s trial was a cell tower expert who spoke about the location of the defendant’s cell phones throughout the day of the shooting.

During direct examination, the witness testified to what cell towers each defendant’s phone connected to before, during, and after the time of the shooting. He also explained to the jury that, at one point, the two phone numbers were calling and receiving calls from one another, despite appearing to be in relatively the same location.

Later, there was a delay with the prosecution’s second witness of the day because of unforeseen confusion and miscommunication between the witness and the prosecution. When the witness came up the stand to testify, Veronice Holt, defense counsel for Mayfield, realized the woman had been sitting in the courtroom while she had been doing her cross examination of the cell site expert. 

Because the witness was not supposed to be in the courtroom while another witness was testifying, defense counsel sought to strike the witness. However, after discussing with the prosecution and believing that there was no malice involved, Holt advocated for inclusion of the witness with the condition that she keep the scope of her testimony to what she testified about during the Grand Jury.

DC Superior Court Judge Maribeth Raffinan ruled that the witness could testify and her testimony could go beyond what she spoke about during the Grand Jury. However, due to time constraints, she was delayed and is scheduled to take the stand during the week of Nov. 14.

A third witness was called, a man who worked at a store in the Langdon Park neighborhood the day before the shooting. He said that on that day, Aug. 9, 2017, he saw three men get out of a car and pass his store. 

He said he then heard gunshots, explaining that he first thought the three men had fired them. However, when he reviewed the store’s surveillance footage, he saw another man, running away from the three men and holding his hand out behind him as if brandishing a gun.

According to court documents, an incident on Aug. 9, 2017, in the ongoing feud between a group of men in the Langdon Park and a group in the Saratoga neighborhoods. 

Court documents state the individual fleeing was from Saratoga, and to retaliate for his having fired shots at them, the three individuals, suspected to be Moses, Mayfield and an accomplice, allegedly planned to do the same in the Saratoga neighborhood the next day. That was what eventually resulted in the death of Sydnor.

However, the witness testified on Nov. 10 that he thought of the three men, all three were “smaller than me,” then clarifying that he meant in both height and weight. Mayfield does not fit this description.

The parties are scheduled to reconvene on Nov. 14.