Kevin Clark and Donald Crosland today pleaded guilty to charges that they shot and killed 17-year-old Ricardo Minger in a Southeast D.C. apartment in January.
Clark, 23, and Crosland, 17, could be sentenced to five to thirty years in prison for the crime.
The voluntary manslaughter plea is a significant reduction from the first-degree murder charge they were each indicted on in June.
Minger, a 17-year-old resident of Southeast D.C., was shot in the face and abdomen Jan. 7 in an apartment in Southeast D.C. He was identified by his fingerprints, according to court documents in the case against Clark.
Crosland, known to friends as “D,” is alleged to have shot at Minger at the same time as Clark the night that Minger was killed.
According to charging documents in the case,
[Witness 1] observed [Clark] walk to the balcony window of the apartment and look out the balcony door. [The witness] then observed [Clark] take out a revolver style handgun that was silver with a brown handle. At the same time, [the witness] observed [Crosland] with his hands in the waistband and him also produce a revolver style handgun. Then, [the witness] observed [Clark] and [Crosland] repeatedly shoot [Minger] at close range.
Four bullets and fragments were recovered from the crime scene and Minger’s autopsy, two were determined to have been shot from the same gun, but the remaining two bullets were “too damaged” to evaluate what gun had shot them, court records state.
Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 7.
Read a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office below.
Two Plead Guilty to Charges In January 2011 Slaying of District Teenager
WASHINGTON - Kevin Clark, 23, and Donald Crosland, 17, pled guilty today to voluntary manslaughter and weapons charges in a killing that took place earlier this year in Southeast Washington, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.
Clark, of Washington, D.C., and Crosland, of Suitland, Md., appeared in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The Honorable Thomas J. Motley scheduled sentencing for December 7, 2011. They face at least five years and up to 30 years in prison.
According to the government’s evidence, on January 7, 2011, at about 9:50 p.m., the defendants entered an apartment in the 5300 block of E Street SE, where they encountered the victim, Ricardo Minger, 17. Both defendants, armed with firearms, shot Minger multiple times, and he subsequently died from his injuries.
In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Machen commended those who worked on the case from the Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) Violent Crimes Branch, along with MPD Detectives Ray Shields and William Covington, and the Mobile Crime Branch, including William Hyatt. U.S. Attorney Machen also praised the work of paralegal Fern
Rhedrick of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Pearlman, who investigated and indicted the case.
