A 21-year-old DC man was sentenced today to 88 years in prison after he was found guilty of killing Anthony Perkins in December 2009.
According to evidence presented at trial, Antwan Holcomb contacted Perkins on a gay chat line and arranged to meet him at his house. The arrangement was a ruse to rob Perkins.
After being found guilty of that killing, Holcomb pleaded guilty to additional assault and weapons charges from crimes which took place in December 2009 and January 2010.
Read the USAO’s press release after the jump.
District Man Sentenced to 88 Years in Prison For First-Degree Felony Murder, Other Crimes- Killed One Man, Wounded Two Other Victims -
WASHINGTON - Antwan Holcomb, 21, was sentenced today to 88 years in prison for first-degree (felony) murder while armed and other charges stemming from two attacks in 2009, including a killing during a robbery, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.
Holcomb, of Washington, D.C., was convicted in March 2011 of murder and charges of armed robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence, unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and carrying a pistol without a license outside the home. The verdict followed a five-day trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
The jury trial involved the December 27, 2009 murder of Anthony Perkins. Following that trial, Holcomb pled guilty to charges of assault with intent to kill and assault with a dangerous weapon in an attack against two other people that took place on December 12, 2009. He also pled guilty to a weapons charge dating to January 29, 2010.
Holcomb was sentenced by the Honorable Lee F. Satterfield, Chief Judge. Chief Judge Satterfield sentenced Holcomb to 66 years of incarceration in the murder case and additional time for the other charges.
In the murder case, the evidence at trial showed that Holcomb, a convicted felon, made calls to a “chat line,” at about 3 a.m. on December 27, 2009, using a phone inside 500 Lebaum Street SE. According to the government’s evidence, Holcomb was hoping to find a gay man who would agree to meet him - and who he could then rob.
The victim, Mr. Perkins, 29, who was gay, made contact with the defendant on the line. Holcomb convinced Mr. Perkins to drive to 500 Lebaum Street.
When Mr. Perkins pulled up in front of that address, at about 4:45 a.m., Holcomb armed himself with a .380 caliber handgun, walked outside, and got into Mr. Perkins’s car. After driving around for several minutes, the defendant shot the victim one time in the head, grabbed a pack of cigarettes that was in the car, and fled.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) found the car about 20 minutes later, with the engine running, parked in the 2900 block of Fourth Street. Mr. Perkins’s body was in the driver’s seat.
In the second case, Holcomb pled guilty to charges in a shooting late December 12, 2009 in the 2700 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE. According to the government’s evidence, Holcomb shot a man he mistakenly thought had stolen a gun from him on a previous occasion. The gunfire hit that victim in the arm and back, paralyzing the man from the waist down. Holcomb also shot a woman that night to eliminate her as a witness; she survived the attack.
Finally, the weapons charge stems from the defendant’s arrest on January 29, 2010. He was caught by MPD officers in the 500 block of 20th Street NE as he was removing a loaded, sawed-off shotgun concealed in his coat.
“Antwan Holcomb shot a man in the head for a pack of cigarettes,” said U.S. Attorney Machen “It is difficult to imagine a more senseless murder, but it is not surprising from a criminal who two weeks earlier shot another man in the back, paralyzing him from the waist down. Today’s 88-year sentence is just punishment for a killer who showed such shocking disregard for human life.”
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen expressed his gratitude to MPD Detectives Michael Fulton, Ray Shields, John Bolden, William Covington, and Don Monroe; MPD Officers Tom Ellingsworth, Eric Walsh, Michael Kasco, Travis Coley, Stanley Rembish, Joy Preston, Edward Wise, and Ralph Nitz; MPD Mobile Crime Technician Nina Sylvester; MPD Latent Fingerprint Examiners Barbara Evans and Willie Higginbotham, and Dr. Joseph Pestaner of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. He also thanked Ripple Communications and the Kentucky Telephone Company for assistance provided in the case.
U.S. Attorney Machen also praised those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Joe Calvarese and Paul Howell of the Litigation Technology Section; Marcey Rinker, Katina Adams, La June Thames and Debra Cannon of the Victim Witness Assistance Unit, the Litigation Services Unit, and paralegal Sandra Lane. Finally, U.S. Attorney Machen acknowledged the efforts of Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ortwein, who assisted with the earlier phases of the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Liebman and Steven Swaney, who tried the murder case.
