From the U.S. Attorney’s Office:
District Man Convicted of Stabbing Neighbor to Death- Attack Took Place While Defendant Was High on PCP
WASHINGTON - Troy Richardson, 40, of Washington, D.C., was convicted today of voluntary manslaughter while armed and carrying a dangerous weapon in the 2009 killing of his neighbor, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.
The verdict followed a trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The Honorable Gerald I. Fisher, who presided at trial, scheduled sentencing for June 16, 2011.
The evidence at trial revealed that on May 17, 2009, the victim, 34-year-old Tyrone Wheaten, went to his mother’s apartment in the 2400 block of Elvans Road SE for Sunday dinner, as he did every week. He brought along his long-term girlfriend and two young sons. At about 6 p.m., he encountered Richardson, who had been a neighbor for over 15 years.
Richardson had just used PCP and was acting out, as he often did. He started a fight with Mr. Wheaten and then ran back into his apartment, threatening to kill him. As Mr. Wheaten stood in front of his mother’s apartment, speaking to his mother and girlfriend, the defendant carried out that threat. He suddenly appeared with a knife and stabbed Mr. Wheaten one time in the chest, killing him in front of Mr. Wheaten’s mother, girlfriend, and two young sons.In announcing the verdict, U.S. Attorney Machen praised the outstanding efforts of members of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), specifically Detectives Carol Queen, Anthony Patterson, Susan Blue, Jeffrey Mayberry, and Christopher Smith, along with Officers Timothy Dumantt, Jeremy Bank, Kelan Edwards, Petheria McIver and Steven Murphy.
U.S. Attorney Machen also commended the efforts of all at the U.S. Attorney’s Office who assisted in bringing about this successful conclusion, specifically intelligence analyst Lawrence Grasso and paralegals Sharon Newman and Phalyn Hunt. Finally, he praised the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Tonolli , now with the Eastern District of Virginia, who investigated the case and tried it previously, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Laura Bach and Melinda Williams who tried the case.
