Trial Review: Jury Finds Defendant Not Guilty of Killing Business Associate

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After a two-week trial, a murder defendant was found not guilty of killing a business associate.

Marquette Tibbs was charged with first-degree murder while armed, second-degree murder while armed, unlawful possession of a firearm with a prior conviction, and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. He was charged for his alleged involvement in the shooting of Orlando Silver III, 37, on the 1300 block of Howard Road, SE, in 2016.

On Feb. 6, one day after the jury began deliberations, Tibbs, 27, was acquitted of the murder and found guilty for unlawful possession of a firearm with a prior conviction.

Cinquan Cartledge is also charged in the homicide. He is charged with first-degree murder while armed, conspiracy to commit a crime of violence, robbery while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, first-degree murder while armed while committing or attempting to commit a robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm with a prior conviction. Tibbs case was severed from Cartledge’s case so that the two men could testify on the other’s behalf.

Cartledge, 25, is scheduled for a status hearing on Feb. 14.

Trial Breakdown:

Tibbs said he did not shoot Silver on Nov. 27, 2016.

According to Tibbs’ testimony, he was with Silver, Cartledge and a fourth unidentified individual.

The prosecutor said he was skeptical about whether or not there was a fourth individual present during the incident. However, according to court documents, a hand print found on the black Nissan was not from Tibbs, Silver, or Cartledge.

“It looked like a fresh struggle had just happened,” defense attorney Jessica Willis told the jury regarding the print.

The fourth individual was never identified.

During the trial, the prosecution called Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers who were at the scene, employees from the Department of Forensic Sciences (DFS) who worked the case, the medical examiner, and other key witnesses that provided further analysis to aid in the prosecution’s theory that Tibbs was guilty.

Silver gave Tibbs his contact information and they arranged a time to meet. At the meeting, there was a physical altercation between Tibbs and Silver’s associate when Tibbs decided that he did not want to proceed with the trade and wanted his gun back. During the scuffle, the gun went off.

“This wasn’t an accident or self-defense. This was a message,” the prosecutor said to the jury.

A medical examiner from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia told a jury that the gunshot wound to Silver’s back was the official cause of his death. She was able to conclude that the bullet entered through Silver’s back and exited through his abdomen. The exit wound was apparent on his front side.

According to a witness, who resided near the scene, “it sounded like a loud firecracker pow”.

That witness was the first person to provide aid to Silver. She testified that she heard the gunshot noise directly outside of her bedroom window and instantly got up to look. After going outside, the witness found Silver struggling to breath and holding his side.

MPD officer’s body camera footage clips were shown to the jury as well. The clips contained camera footage from interviews with the witnesses and footage from first responders who arrived on the scene.

Despite a forensic scientist obtaining 15 fingerprints from the scene, only five of the fingerprints were of valuable. The other ten “were not suitable for comparison,” said the DFS employee.

According to the scientist, four fingerprints were recovered from the front hood of the Nissan vehicle. And the fifth print was able to be lifted through “gel lifting”, which meant that the print was on a difficult or textured surface. Tibbs’ fingerprint was recovered with blood on it.

The prosecution also showed the jury about data compiled on a map on an exhibit that presented Tibbs’ and Cartledge’s location during the time of the murder. Since both defendants were wearing a GPS ankle monitors, their locations were constantly recorded. According to the data, it showed both defendants at the scene of the crime.

Shortly after the shooting, according to the defendant’s locations, it showed that they split up. That is consistent with other individual’s statements who encountered them shortly afterward.

Text messages between Silver and Tibbs from the morning of the murder were displayed for the jury as well. They show communication about some type of deal.

The prosecution tried to convince the jury that Tibbs was not there for a gun exchange. They thought that he was there for a drug deal and when Silver turned away, that’s when Tibbs allegedly shot him.

After the prosecution finished their argument, the defense called witnesses as well. These witnesses included Metropolitan Police Department officers, employees of the Public Defender Service, an employee from Correct Tech LLC which is a consulting firm that assists agencies in court for tracking individuals, and the murder defendant.

According to the defense, Tibbs charged his GPS ankle monitor a couple of hours prior to the incident and a few minutes after the incident occurred. The defense said charging the monitor is not consistent with someone who would be planning a murder. In fact, if he was, the defense said he would have let the monitor die to avoid tracking his location.

A 360° picture of the crime scene was taken by a forensic scientist. In the image, it can be seen that there is an apartment building with bushes in front of it. Whereas in the poster board exhibit that the prosecution recreated of the crime scene, the defense pointed out that the exhibit failed to include the bushes in front of the apartment building.

The defense advised the jury to rely on the actual evidence recovered from the scene and not the exhibits produced from the evidence. The defense attorney said that the recovered evidence was more accurate.

The defense also pointed out that the scientist who recovered evidence and searched Tibbs’ jacket the first time, did not thoroughly search it. Therefore, an employee from the Public Defender Service recovered $350 from Tibbs’ jacket pocket that was located in MPD’s evidence control branch.

“I did not touch the gun. I didn’t shoot and kill Orlando,” Tibbs told the jury.

The jury began deliberations on Feb. 6.

Tibss was convicted of unlawful possession of a gun with a prior conviction and will have to serve a minimum of 1 year in prison.

Tibbs is scheduled for sentencing on April 3.