In brief:
- Viola Drath‘s death in Georgetown was ruled a homicide by a medical examiner last Saturday and on Tuesday her husband, Albrecht Muth was arrested in connection with the case. He appeared in DC Superior Court Wednesday and was presented with a charge of second-degree murder. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for the case for Sept. 2.
- Vance Darnell Harris II was killed in a stabbing last Saturday; his girlfriend, Dominique Bassil, was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder in the case. She appeared in court Monday to be presented with the charge, and Thursday for a preliminary hearing. At the hearing Judge Gerald Fisher did not find probable cause for second-degree murder, instead ruling that evidence at this time shows cause for involuntary manslaughter. Bassil told authorities that she and Harris were engaged in a physical argument when she ran to the kitchen, grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed him.
- Anthony Donnell Peoples was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder while armed in an October 2010 homicide that killed 24-year-old Ronald Johnson in Northwest DC.
- A woman found stabbed to death outside the Old Post Office Pavilion earlier this month remains a Jane Doe, but police are listing an alias on a poster seeking more information about how, and why, she was killed. The woman, whose photo also appears on the poster, is listed as “aka Eman Mohammed.”
- Nineteen-year-old Osman Al-Akbar was killed in a shooting in Columbia Heights early Wednesday morning and two teenagers were arrested in connection with the homicide shortly after. One suspect, a 15-year-old juvenile, has not been identified because of his age. The second, 19-year-old Rashid Caviness-Bey, was presented with the charge of second-degree murder while armed on Thursday.
- Judge Ronna Beck found probable cause that Marc Tapp was involved in a shooting that killed 19-year-old Jermaine Anderson at “Ivy City Day” in May.
- Judge Lynn Leibovitz ruled that there is substantial probability that William Faison committed first-degree murder when Jeffrey Covington was shot during a robbery attempt on a craps game. In making the ruling, she rejected defense claims that Faison was not the person responsible for the shooting and that, if he were, it would have been in self-defense.
- On the day he was to go to trial for first-degree murder this week, Samson Alemayhu instead pleaded guilty, admitting that he killed Assefaw Hagos in a fatal stabbing in May 2010 outside an Ethiopian restaurant in Northwest DC. The charge was dropped to second-degree murder while armed in the plea agreement. The case was scheduled to go to trial Monday.
