Relative, Who Was in Car with Victim, Testifies At Murder Trial

By Graham Krewinghaus [former] - October 28, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

Prosecutors put three witnesses, including the nephew of the victim, on the stand to testify against murder co-defendants in a trial on Oct. 27.

James Mayfield, 23, and 23-year-old Robert Moses are charged with 13 and 25 counts respectively, including first-degree murder, drive-by or random shooting, assault with a dangerous weapon, robbery while armed and conspiracy among others in connection with an Aug. 10, 2017, shooting at the intersection of Saratoga and Montana Avenues, NE that killed 17-year-old Jamahri Sydnor. 

According to court documents, the shooting was connected to a feud between a crew from the Saratoga neighborhood and the defendants’ crew from the Langdon Park neighborhood—though Sydnor was connected with neither.

The first witness to testify in front of the jury on Thursday was a DNA analyst who submitted a report on the case in October 2019. The prosecutor presented a copy of that report, which tested several parts of the vehicle the defendants allegedly escaped in — a gold Honda — and several pieces of clothing found in the vehicle.

As the witness explained, she tested swabs of those items against DNA from Mayfield, Moses and an accomplice who confessed to having driven the Honda that day. The accomplice is expected to testify for the prosecution at the next hearing.

Results from the interior of the front driver-side door “strongly favored inclusion” of the accomplice, while the rear driver-side door had what was likely the DNA of Mayfield. The DNA of all three individuals was detected with high probability on the rim of a red cup found in the front cupholder. Moses’ DNA was likely present on a blue sweatshirt the lab tested, but on other shirts found in the car, all three were definitively “excluded,” meaning they had no DNA on those items. 

The witness clarified that even when a person’s DNA is almost certainly on an item, it cannot be assumed that the person touched the item directly. DNA can be transferred, she noted, if it lingers on an item which another person later touches before touching whatever was tested.

The defense cross-examined the witness on this point about DNA transference. Mayfield’s defense attorney, Veronice Holt, tried repeatedly to get the witness to agree that her client corresponded to a figure in the evidence swab report that made up only 8 percent of the total DNA detected on a black “Master Piece” sweatshirt found in the Honda. The witness said she resisted connecting the number to Mayfield several times, and Holt grew visibly impatient.

Holt asked at one point whether the witness believed there were other experts “competent” enough to be able to confidently draw that connection.

“Objection, Your Honor,” the prosecutor cut in. “She was stipulated to as an expert!”

DC Superior Court Judge Maribeth Raffinan overruled the objection, asking Holt to rephrase. After several more failed attempts to get the witness to connect the figure with her client, Holt presented a contradictory report to the witness’s findings, which said the 8 percent could suggest Mayfield’s DNA was only transferred by another onto the sweatshirt, and that it should not be thought that he was the wearer. The report’s author testified on Oct. 25 to the same effect. 

The witness agreed there was no way to be certain how Mayfield’s DNA got onto the sweatshirt, saying “I never have any idea how any DNA got on anything.”

The prosecutor called an eyewitness next, who had been in her black Chevy Tahoe with her husband when Sydnor’s car crashed into hers and came to a stop. She testified that they were waiting for family when they heard gunshots, looked up, and saw an individual shooting a handgun across the intersection.

Her husband told her to get down just as the individual appeared to be lowering the gun and turning to run away. She said she didn’t get a good enough look at the shooter to identify anything besides a fitted hat, a colorful shirt and a dark complexion. 

The next thing she described to the jury was the crashing of Sydnor’s car into hers, which she said shocked her because she said her car was quite big but it was moved considerably by the impact. When she got out, she saw someone she described as a nine-year-old boy getting out of Sydnor’s car.

“Auntie J,” as he called her, was driving him to the barbershop on Aug. 12, 2017, so he could get a fresh haircut ahead of another aunt’s wedding, Sydnor’s nephew told the jury.

As they approached Saratoga Avenue, he recalled, “she was letting me play songs on her phone.” They got into a short argument over whether or not he had cursed while singing along to a song. Then, he said, he saw a man just to his right pull a gun from his waistband and aim it at his window.

“I thought it was a fake gun,” the witness said. “I had never seen a real gun before.”

The man fired several times, completely shattering the passenger-side window and spraying shards of glass all over the boy. The prosecution presented photos of the injuries the boy sustained from the glass—on his knee, his hands, all over his cheek and even in his eye.

When he turned over to see his aunt, the witness said, Sydnor’s face was covered in blood and she wasn’t responsive. He hit her several times to try and wake her up. When they collided with the black Tahoe, the witness said he got out of the car, screaming for help.

As the witness explained, when he did find somebody, he asked them for a ride and directed them towards his grandmother’s house. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers met them there, and the prosecutor presented bodycam photos of the witness getting out of the car, sobbing and scratched up by the shattered glass from the gunshots. 

Before adjourning for the day, Judge Raffinan asked the prosecutors what they expected to cover the next day of the trial.

The prosecutors said they planned to call Mayfield and Moses’ accomplice next, who drove them to and from the scene of the crime, whose interview with the police was critical in the eventual arrests of the two defendants and on whose testimony the prosecutors’ case hinges.

According to court documents, the accomplice did not initially identify any suspects to the MPD, but did say that someone paid him on Aug. 10, 2017, to drive him and a friend to a spot two blocks away from the shooting. Several minutes later, the pair ran back and asked him to drive them off. 

It was only after being arrested and charged with the murder of Sydnor that the accomplice was re-interviewed. He gave the police the names of Mayfield and Moses and admitted the shooting was related to an ongoing feud between the Langdon Park crew and the Saratoga crew.

Judge Raffinan received a note from a juror before the lunch break on Tuesday, expressing concern about the timeline of the trial, given some testimony had taken longer than anticipated. Moses’ attorney Steven Kiersh notified the judge that his case would take “less than a day to present.”

Holt said hers could be done in less than a half day, because “our main witness has testified” already, having been called by the prosecutor. 

Judge Raffinan informed the jury she still expected to be ready for deliberations by Nov. 14.

The trial was set to continue on Monday, Oct. 31.