Wayne Jackson, Harold Proctor and Christopher Williams, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges in the 2011 death of 20-year-old Kevin Blackwell Jr. Prosecutors said it was a killing motivated by revenge.
Chavez Tyrek Myers, 17, was charged with second-degree murder while armed and assault with a dangerous weapon for his involvement in the early Saturday morning brawl in the Woodley Park Metro station that left Olijawon Griffin dead and another teenager with a broken nose. Eight other teens were charged as juveniles for their alleged roles in the armed robbery and melee.
The Georgetown home where elderly socialite Viola Drath was killed a little more than a year ago is being emptied of her possessions as part of an estate sale, the Washingtonian reported.
Brian Gaither pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 18-year-old Latisha Frazier. Gaither’s trial began Monday; jury selection was due to begin next week. Of six original co-defendants, only one, Johnnie Sweets, is still headed for trial.
The two teenagers suspected of killing taxi driver Quadar Muhammad were ordered held without bond during a preliminary hearing in D.C. Superior Court Tuesday. Joshua Terrell Mebane and Linda Bury, both Maryland residents, have been charged with felony murder while armed in connection with Muhammad’s death.
The Associated Press reports on the falling homicide rate in the District, on track to be the lowest in half a century:
The crack epidemic that began in the 1980s ushered in a wave of bloodletting in the nation’s capital and a death toll that ticked upward daily. Dead bodies, sometimes several in a night, had homicide detectives hustling between crime scenes and earned Washington unwelcome monikers such as the nation’s “murder capital.” At the time, some feared the murder rate might ascend to more frightening heights.
But after approaching nearly 500 slayings a year in the early 1990s, the annual rate has gradually declined to the point that the city is now on the verge of a once-unthinkable milestone. The number of 2012 killings in the District of Columbia stands at 78 and is on pace to finish lower than 100 for the first time since 1963, police records show.
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The two teenagers suspected of killing taxi driver Quadar Muhammad were ordered held without bond during a preliminary hearing in D.C. Superior Court Tuesday.
Joshua Terrell Mebane and Linda Bury, both Maryland residents, have been charged with felony murder while armed in connection with Muhammad’s death. Muhammad was found dead on Nov. 7 in his burning Lincoln taxi cab. A subsequent investigation found that he had been shot once in the head.
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Washington’s Other Monuments has photos of a memorial to Gregory Darnell Troxler, who was shot and killed in the middle of the afternoon on Oct. 11 near Gallaudet University in Northeast D.C. Read more
Brian Gaither pleaded guilty today to first-degree murder in the death of 18-year-old Latisha Frazier. Gaither’s trial began Monday; jury selection was due to begin next week.
In May, Gaither rejected a plea offer that would have capped his sentence at 38 years. In entering the plea today he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors however have promised to ask for a sentence of no more than 32 years in prison.
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Washington’s Other Monuments has photos of a street shrine for Anthony “Buck” Watts, who was killed on Oct. 25 near the intersection of 36th Street and Benning Road Northeast.
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Reco Pernell Coates III and his attorney, Thomas Dybdahl, greeted each other with smiles yesterday just before Judge William Jackson accepted Coates’ plea of guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the 2007 murder of 39-year-old Anthony Collins.
Coates, 22, was arrested in 2009 and originally pled innocent to two counts of first-degree murder, burglary while armed, robbery while armed and several weapons charges. These charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
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Friends and family members gathered Monday evening for a candlelight vigil near Olijawon Griffin‘s Olney, Md., home to remember the teen, who was stabbed and killed early Saturday morning in the Woodley Park Metro station. Read more
The Georgetown home where elderly socialite Viola Drath was killed a little more than a year ago is being emptied of her possessions as part of an estate sale, the Washingtonian reports.
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Chavez Tyrek Myers, 17, was charged with second-degree murder while armed and assault with a dangerous weapon for his involvement in the early Saturday morning brawl in the Woodley Park Metro station that left Olijawon Griffin dead and another teenager with a broken nose.
Myers will be prosecuted as an adult. Eight other teens were charged as juveniles Monday for their alleged roles in the armed robbery and melee. Read more
