Judge Lynn Leibovitz sentenced Irving Harris Johnson Thursday to 82 years in prison in connection with the shooting deaths of Domonique Barbour and Jimmie Lee Simmons III.
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Police Informants Implicate Eugene Kelly in Murder of 15-Year-Old Isaiah Harris
A jury began deliberating Thursday in the first-degree murder case against Eugene Kelly. Much of the case hinges on the testimony of two police informants.
The two key witnesses testified Monday that they saw Eugene Kelly near the neighborhood where prosecutors say he shot two teens in 2011, killing one – 15-year-old Isaiah Daniel Harris.
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Albrecht Muth in State of ‘Chronic Starvation,’ Remains at Hospital
On Thursday, Judge Russell Canan offered the clearest signs yet he intends to require enfeebled murder defendant Albrecht Muth to appear for trial by video link if his condition has not improved.
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Johnnie Sweet’s Attorney Advises Client to Accept Plea Offer in Latisha Frazier Murder
As the second day of testimony began Wednesday, Johnnie Sweet rejected yet another plea overture from the government, saying that he would not agree to any deal that would require him to spend more time in prison than the man he says is most culpable for Latisha Frazier’s death- Brian Gaither.
Before the jury was escorted into the courtroom Wednesday, Sweet’s defense attorney, James Rudasill Jr., stated in open court that he spoke with Sweet until around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday evening in an attempt to convince him to accept the government’s plea offer.
“It is my professional assessment of this case that accepting the government’s plea offer is in his best interest,” Rudasill said.
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19 Year Prison Sentence for Tarkeyshia Brown in Stabbing Death of Jawan Parker
Judge William Jackson sentenced Tarkeyshia Brown to 19 years in prison Wednesday after she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the October 2011 stabbing death of Jawan Parker.
Prosecutors had been seeking the maximum sentence of 21 years since Oct. 2012, but Brown’s sentencing was pushed back several times so that she could be evaluated by mental health professionals.
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Eric Jerome Payne Pleads Guilty to Voluntary Manslaughter for Role in 2011 Stabbing
Eric Jerome Payne pleaded guilty Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter for his role in the the June 2011 stabbing death of Charles Hicks.
Payne’s agreement is similar to a plea offer his codefendant, Terrence McNeal, accepted last year. McNeal, not Payne, was accused of stabbing Hicks; McNeal pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter while armed. He was sentenced in February to 12 and a half years in prison.
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Police Identify Victim of Tuesday Night Homicide as Rahmaan Jamal Ward
A 32-year-old man was killed Tuesday night in a fatal shooting, police said Wednesday.
The man, identified as Rahmaan Jamal Ward, of Southeast D.C., was found after being shot multiple times in the 3500 block of 18th Street, Southeast, at about 10:13 p.m.
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Comment of the Day: ‘I didn’t have time to utter the word goodbye’
Angel Lucas writes on the Homicide Watch D.C. Facebook page about Andre Jackson:
“Tears I miss my Lil Cuzzin so freaking much it’s a shane that he was subject to a senseless crime such as this my heart aches 24/7 it’s going on 6 months since he’s been gone…He was a good man always wore a smile I wish he could have stick around for a long while. We all miss him deeply and think of him everyday many looked up to him he always had something to say “You Hear Me”
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Beating Death of Latisha Frazier was ‘Like a Peer Pressure Thing,’ Witness Testifies
What can be described as the final chapter in the story of Latisha Frazier’s death began Tuesday morning with the start of defendant Johnnie Sweet‘s murder trial.
Sweet, 19, is charged with taking part in Frazier’s death- a killing that, as one teen described at trial Tuesday, was fueled by peer pressure. Six young people are belived to have taken part, but Sweet is the only one as yet to have his culpability weighed by a jury. Four young people have pleaded guilty to charges connected with the case, including murder and kidnapping. Charges for a fifth are listed in court records as “pending grand jury.”
Prosecutors believe the trial will last longer than a week, and will include details of how Sweet and his accomplices beat, taped, gagged and choked eighteen-year-old Frazier until she died in a closet on Aug. 2, 2010. The trial will not include any evidence from medical examiners or the autopsy reports common to most murder trials; Frazier’s body was never found.
It was Sweet’s house, prosecutors argued Tuesday that Frazier disappeared from.
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Ricardo Mitchell Pleads Guilty in Shooting Death of Wyatt Earp Robinson
A Maryland man charged with the “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel” killing of another on Minnesota Avenue in Aug. 2011 has pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the case.
Ricardo Mitchell entered the plea to second-degree murder while armed in court Tuesday, saying that he shot and killed Wyatt Earp Robinson after the two “exchanged words.”
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