Ladonte Hawkins was presented at D.C. Superior Court Thursday where Judge Karen Howze ruled there is enough evidence to hold him in connection with the 2010 stabbing death of 19-year-old Kelvin Jamal Willis. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for August 28.
Willis was found stabbed in the Unit block of N Street Northwest around 3:30 a.m. Nov. 6, 2010. Detectives later determined that the stabbing took place in the Unit block of Hanover Place NW.
Arrest documents say that while in the hospital, Willis told detectives that he was punched and attacked by three people, who then robbed him of his wallet containing $15, before stabbing him with a knife. Willis later told members of his family that he was also robbed of his coat, according to charging documents.
Read more
Judge Robert Morin found substantial probability Thursday that Jermaine Brown is responsible for the death of 31-year-old Randolph Scott Harris Jr. Brown, 34, remains held while a grand jury investigates the case.
Personnel from the D.C. Fire Department found Harris inside his apartment around 6:20 a.m. July 26, suffering from severe burns and multiple gunshot wounds; there were no signs of forced entry. Harris was later pronounced dead at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.
Metropolitan Police Detective Gus Giannakoulias testified at a preliminary hearing Thursday that when the firefighters arrived on scene they found Harris sitting in a wicker chair. Underneath the chair were clothes, blankets and pillows, which had been set on fire. And Harris had suffered three gunshot wounds: one to his right arm, one to his right hand, and one to the head. Police also found lighters in the apartment, Giannakoulias said, but there was no direct evidence as to how the fire was started.
Read more
Judge Russell Canan sentenced Alexander Buckley Thursday to 22 years in prison for the shooting death of 18-year-old Siohban Nicole Lee.
Buckley, 22, pled guilty in June to second-degree murder while armed in connection with Lee’s death.
According to plea documents in the case, Lee and Buckley had been communicating through a social media site called “Tagged” about a week before the shooting, and eventually exchanged phone numbers.
Read more
A 24-year-old Southeast DC man was killed in a shooting Wednesday evening in front of an apartment building.
The victim, Timothy Delonte Dawkins, was found dead in Southeast DC just before 7 p.m.
Read more
A Northeast D.C. man has been arrested in connection with the 2010 stabbing death of 19-year-old Kelvin Willis.
Willis was found stabbed in the Unit block of N Street Northwest around 3:30 a.m. Nov. 6, 2010. Detectives later determined that the stabbing took place in the Unit block of Hanover Place NW.
Willis died from his injuries two weeks later.
Members of the Capitol Area Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested Ladonte Hawkins Wednesday on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with Willis’ death.
An MPD press release is after the jump.
Read more
It was a restaurant robbery gone bad. And it left 54-year-old Miguel Angel Ventura dead. The man who wielded the knife, stabbing Ventura at least ten times, is in Mexico. The owner of the knife, on trial for murder.
At least, that’s the way prosecutors tell it.
In opening statements today, prosecutors told jurors that Jose Reyes and Alexander Gomez-Enamorado planned together to rob Ventura in the early morning hours of Nov. 8, 2010. They were armed with a knife. But when things went wrong, Reyes stabbed Ventura, at least ten times, including once through his right eye.
The knife belonged to Gomez-Enamorado, and prosecutors said Wednesday that he, the only one on trial, is guilty. Reyes, believed to be in Mexico, has not been arrested.
But defense attorneys say this story is wrong. That Gomez-Enamorado had no idea that Reyes was going to kill Ventura. That he was simply seated at the bar that morning when Reyes charged from the back of the restaurant holding a knife to Ventura’s throat.
Read more
Although mental health evaluators recommend that Reynaud Cook continue to receive psychiatric treatments, they have concluded that he is competent to stand trial for the murder of 30-year-old Yolanda Stone.
Cook, 29, was arraigned Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder, first and second-degree cruelty to children, contempt and weapons charges in connection with the February 2012 shooting death of Stone. Cook pleaded innocent to all charges.
Read more
This time last year we were closing in on the one-week mark for a Kickstarter campaign to keep Homicide Watch DC alive. I was about to embark on a Nieman-Berkman fellowship at Harvard, and without me present in DC it was unclear how the site was going to continue publishing. It was a nail-bitting moment.
I wrote:
Working on this beat in DC has been so incredibly meaningful for me that I can not adequately express my gratitude to you for taking part in this experiment. Together we have changed the face of crime reporting and told the world that the common news values for violent crime reporting are wrong. We have said, together, with one voice, that how people live and die here, and how those deaths are recognized, matters to every one of us.
In an effort to continue this valuable work we are seeking to transform Homicide Watch DC into a student reporting lab. We need $40,000 to do it, and we hope you will help us.
More than one thousand people answered that call, raising $47,450.
Our paid interns have included: Sam Pearson, Penny Ray, Jonah Newman, Vanya Mehta, Ivan Natividad, and Megan Arellano. They are among the brightest young professionals I know and it has been a privilege to work with them.
What they have accomplished in running Homicide Watch DC has been nothing short of remarkable. Traffic and audience engagement have grown, yes, but they’ve also expanded the core competencies of what Homicide Watch DC does, adding day-in-day-out coverage of trials, creating new ways of checking data, and building more feature work into our coverage.
Read more
Prosecutors and defense counsel in the “21st and Vietnam” murder trial have concluded closing arguments and the case now rests in the hands of the jury, who began deliberations around noon Tuesday.
During the trial, which lasted nearly two months, prosecutors argued that Anthony Hatton, Jekwan Smith, Johnnie Harris and Stanley Moghalu were members of a crew called “21st and Vietnam” that “turned [their] neighborhood into a battleground.” Prosecutors allege that the four men are linked by loyalty and are responsible for the shooting deaths of Tyrell Fogle, Isaiah Sheffield, and Steven Moore.
Defense counsel for the men argued, though, that the defendants are not members of “21st and Vietnam,” and that the government’s case is filled with insufficient evidence and false identifications.
Read more
Donte Graves was arraigned Monday on charges of second-degree murder, armed robbery and five related weapons offenses in connection with the shooting death of 22-year-old Tyrone Joyner. Graves, 19, pleaded innocent to all charges and a trial date has been scheduled for March 2014.
Joyner was found around 6:30 p.m. Feb. 24 in the 1400 block of Canal Street Southwest suffering from a gunshot wound to the stomach; he later died at Howard University Hospital. About a week later Graves was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder in connection with Joyner’s death.
Read more
