Homicide Watch D.C.

Fox5’s Paul Wagner reports that a police officer who witnessed Wyatt Earp Robinson’s shooting death in Northeast DC has pled guilty. The officer, Antonia McClam, was charged with obstruction of justice and neglect of an officer to make an arrest, Wagner reported.
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A man was shot inside an apartment in Northeast DC, on 24th St NE near Benning Road. MPD Fifth district commander Andy Solberg wrote in a listserve message:

At about 8:15 this evening, a man was shot inside an apartment building in the 600 block of 24th St., NE.

The man was taken to an area hospital and has died of his wounds.

Detectives and patrol officers are at the scene and are investigating this event.

We will provide more information as it becomes available and ask that anyone with any information call 727-9099 to report.

Update: An editor at NBC Washington reports that a suspect is in custody:

Shooting Update: Adult male shot in NE DC has died - suspect in custody .

— Melinda Woolbright (@milynnde) April 12, 2012

A jury of six men and six women began deliberations late Wednesday afternoon on whether or not a Northeast DC grandmother is culpable of manslaughter in the stabbing death of her on-again-off-again boyfriend.

Patricia Cave’s defense attorney argued for the second day Wednesday that Cave stabbed Lamont Warren in the chest in self-defense.

Prosecutor Charles Cobb mocked that theory in front of the jury in his closing arguments.

“‘Oops! It slipped!,’” he said, gesturing in a stabbing motion to his own chest and opening his eyes up large.

“[Cave] exercised her ‘Double-O’ certificate, her license to kill,” Cobb said. “Except she didn’t have a license to kill.”
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Relying mostly on a video taped statement that Patricia Cave gave to homicide detectives after her boyfriend, Lamont Warren, was stabbed in the heart, the government presented its case to a jury today, the first day of testimony in Cave’s trial on a charge of voluntary manslaughter.

“I have nothing to hide,” Cave says in the video. “I didn’t even know he was stabbed.”

Prosecutors say that Cave, who had a tumultuous on-again-off-again relationship with Warren, allowed him into her home the night of June 2 because he brought her cigarettes, beer and vodka. Prosecutor Charles Cobb told the jury in opening statements that those items were “the price of admission” for Warren, who had been ordered to stay-away from the apartment, to enter Cave’s home.

But from the defense table, Cave shook her head “no,” while Cobb told this to the jury and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue when Cobb told the jury that Cave had told Warren to go lie down on her bed in the one-bedroom apartment then, hours later, stabbed Warren while he lay flat on his back in that bed.
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An 18-year-old Northeast DC man turned himself into MPD Monday on a charge of first-degree murder.

In a press release Tuesday, MPD said the man, Malachi Hansan Hargrove, is suspected in the shooting death of 19-year-old Osman Al-Akbar. Al-Akbar was killed near Meridian Hill Park in August 2011.

Two others, in addition to Hargrove, are suspected in the case: an unidentified juvenile who was 15-years-old when he was arrested shortly after the shooting, and 19-year-old Rashid Caviness-Bey.
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DC Councilman Phil Mendelson has asked the District’s 911 system director for a full explanation of how a 911 operator failed to respond to a call for help from a witness to Angelo Jones’ 2010 shooting death in Clay Terrace.

The call, placed in the early morning hours of October 2, 2010, was part of the investigation into Jones’ death. It was made public as part of evidence at trial and first reported by Homicide Watch.
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In brief:

Curtis McKnight and Robert Pumphrey Jr. were found guilty in the 2007 northeast DC shooting death of the Raynard Jennings.

A review of this year’s reported homicides compared to last year’s showed fewer homicides (year-to-date) this year. The review also showed that this year’s victims have been younger. In 2011 the deadliest ages were 20 and 22; so far in 2012, the deadliest ages have been 19 and 21. Two children, Keyontae Osbia Moore, aged 20 months, and Kuron Rashad Hunt, who died after delivery, are also among this year’s victims. In 2011 the youngest homicide victim was 15 years old.

Later in the week, the death of an infant girl found abandoned on a doorstep in Northeast DC in January was ruled a homicide. The medical examiner said the cause of death was hypothermia.

Mark Pray and Alonzo Marlow were found guilty today of the killing of two people: Crystal Washington in April 2009 and Jheryl Hodge in January 2010. Washington was killed a day before she was scheduled to testify for the government in a murder case. Pray and Kenneth Benbow were also found guilty of the 2008 murder of Van Johnson Jr.

The preliminary hearing for Raymond Faunteroy was postponed at the request of his attorney; she said Faunteroy, suspected in the death of Derrick Ragland, wished to hire a private attorney.

The Office of Unified Communications faced tough questions from Councilman Phil Mendelson, chair of the committee on the judiciary, about a 911 call that came in more than five minutes before Angelo Jones was shot to death in Clay Terrace in 2010. Jennifer Greene, director of the OUC said the operator heard on the call has been retrained and that system upgrades should make problems like the one recorded on the call less common. But Mendelson remained concerned that the 911 system is not operating effectively.

Later in the week, the Washington Post, in an editorial, called on the City Council to conduct its own review of the District’s 911 system.

Brandon Andrews pled innocent in the shooting death of Leonard Bigelow. Andrews is charged with first-degree murder and threats as well as two counts of assault and three weapons charges.

Timothy Shade and Deshaun Johnson, accused of killing Bernard Lewis as he stumbled drunk and high down a Southeast DC street, were sentenced to four- and five-year prison terms after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter. The two men told the court that Lewis’ death was an accident.

MPD confirmed this afternoon that the death of an unidentified baby girl has been ruled a homicide.

The infant, a black female, was wrapped in the towel pictured here. MPD has asked that anyone with information contact them at 202-727-9099.

MPD has scheduled a press conference for this evening (Friday) to discuss the case.

MPD’s press release is after the jump.
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Two men, accused of killing Bernard Lewis as he stumbled drunk and high down a Southeast DC street, were sentenced today to four- and five-year prison terms after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Timothy Shade and Deshaun Johnson each told the court Friday morning that Lewis’s death was an accident.
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Brandon Andrews pled innocent this morning in the shooting death of Leonard Bigelow.

Andrews is charged with first-degree murder and threats as well as two counts of assault and three weapons charges.

Bigelow, 43, was killed outside his Northeast DC home in August.
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