Alfred Evans, a 28-year-old man, stood before Judge Lynn Leibovitz today to take punishment for a torturous 2003 killing of a homeless drug addict which Leibovitz called incomprehensible.
Convicted twice for the murder of Reginald Brighthart, Evans was sentenced to 47 years in prison.
Said Leibovitz:
In the world where crack cocaine rules, the life of a crackhead has no value… He was a crack head and so it was fine to torment him. And when he had the nerve to fight back, that was enough [for you] to sentence him to death. You essentially told him that his life was worthless. It was beyond wrong. Beyond incomprehensible. You helped torture and execute him with his head in the toilet.
Evans’ mother cried as Leibovitz spoke, and stood up in support of her son when asked to by Evans’ defense attorney.
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Deangelo Garner pleaded innocent today to one count of first degree murder in the August 30 shooting death of Antonio Valdez Vela.
Garner also pleaded innocent to weapons charges connected with the case.
Judge Lynn Leibovitz set a trial date for the case of Jan. 30.
Christopher Fletcher, killed May 24, 2011 in SE DC
A 49-year-old Southeast DC man was arrested today in connection with the shooting death of Christopher Fletcher in Southeast DC on May 24.
John David Bolton is suspected of first degree murder while armed, MPD officials said.
Fletcher, 41, was a resident of Fairmont Heights, Md. at the time of his death.
MPD’s press release is after the jump.
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Seventy-one year-old Solomon Reese of Southeast DC was killed Monday night in a shooting, MPD reports.
According to a press release, Reese was found with multiple gunshot wounds in the 2300 block of Good Hope Road, SE. He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Read more from MPD after the jump.
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A roundup of coverage of the fatal shooting following the Caribbean Festival in DC Saturday, including interviews with Robert Foster Jr’s family and more about suspect Terry Jimenez.
Man Accused in Shooting Only Returned to D.C. Last Week DCist
One week. That’s how long it took Terry Allen Jimenez, arrested and charged with second-degree murder for allegedly shooting and killing an innocent man last Saturday, to get back into trouble in D.C. after he left town for safety reasons.
D.C. man charged in slaying of man near Caribbean Festival parade Washington Post
Thought to have been the intended target of a deadly drive-by shooting in February, Terry Allen Jimenez was told by authorities to leave town — and he did, staying with a family member out of state.
Last Monday, they got word that he was back. On Monday, Jimenez, 19, was charged with second-degree murder while armed in connection with the Saturday shooting death of Robert Foster Jr., police said.
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ProPublica’s latest installment of their excellent series on death investigation in America focuses on how child deaths are investigated and prosecuted.
Writes ProPublica:
We analyzed nearly two dozen cases in the United States and Canada in which people have been accused of killing children based on flawed or biased work by forensic pathologists, and then later cleared.
Some spent years in prison before courts overturned their convictions. In 2004, San Diego prosecutors moved to dismiss charges against a man who’d been imprisoned for two decades for murdering his girlfriend’s son.
Others were freed more swiftly but endured hardships nonetheless. An El Paso, Texas, jury acquitted a woman of killing her child in 2010, but after spending 22 months in the county jail, she still had to wage a legal battle to regain custody of her other children.
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Fort Hunt Patch has posted a tribute to David Matthews, a teacher in the Ft. Hunt School Aged Child Care Program who was killed in DC this month.
Wrote Paul Dean:
I hope that Mr. Matthew’s passing will serve as a reminder to us all to take the time to recognize and honor those who have an important impact on the lives of our children. We all lead busy and hectic lives and spend a lot of time dealing with the many problems and challenges we face on a daily basis, leaving us little time to reflect on those things that are positive. So to Mr. Matthews, I say thank you for who you were and all you have done to make my children better people, and to make our community a better place. May you rest in peace.
Read the full letter here.
Terry Jimenez appeared in DC Superior Court today, shackled and wearing civilian clothes but with no evidence of an injury police say he suffered in the Saturday shootout that killed Robert Foster Jr. following the Caribbean Festival in Northwest DC.
Jimenez, who will be 20 years old in August, was in court to be presented with one charge of second-degree murder while armed in connection with Fosters’ death. His father was in court for the hearing.
Investigators say Jimenez, a member of the Hobart Stars crew, was posturing against a member of the Clifton Terrace University crew along Georgia Avenue on Saturday afternoon. When the other man turned to leave the street with his two friends, Jimenez and his friends followed them. The men’s posturing turned to showing each other their weapons, then Jimenez walked toward the CTU men, ducked behind a car, and fired his .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol at them. Two of the men answered back with gunfire of their own in his direction.
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UPDATE: Prosecutors expect Jimenez to be presented with the charge sometime after 3 p.m. today.
MPD says they have arrested Terry Jimenez, a 19-year-old man injured in a shooting near DC’s Caribean Festival Saturday, on suspicion of murder, NBC Washington reports.
Jimenez was identified by Councilman Jim Graham as the intended target of Saturday’s shooting as well as the February shooting death of teen Lucki Pannell.
According to NBC Washington, Police Chief Cathy Lanier “said Jimenez was the aggressor in the shooting. Jimenez is originally from the 11th Street area of D.C., Lanier said.”
