A man on trial for killing his wife was found guilty Monday of first-degree premeditated murder while armed.
Elizabeth Patrice Singleton was killed in her Southeast DC home in March 1999.
Said the US Attorney’s office:
During the last six months of her life, the victim, Elizabeth Patrice Singleton, 32, sought and received both civil protection and stay-away orders against [Lawrence] Davis, who had attempted to reconcile with her after he spent six years in prison. During this period, Davis violated the protection provisions of both orders by beating Singleton in September 1998, holding her at gunpoint and raping her in December 1998, threatening to kill her in December 1998, and harassing her in January and February of 1999.
On the morning of March 1, 1999, after dropping two of the Davis/Singleton children off at school, Davis returned to Singleton’s home in the 1700 block of A Street SE with their six-year-old son. As the child sat in the car outside, able to hear everything transpiring in the house, Davis entered the home and attacked Singleton immediately inside the front door.
The press release from the US Attorney’s Office is below.
District Man Convicted in the 1999 Killing of His Estranged Wife, Following a Renewed Investigation of the Crime - Murder Followed Series of Violent Incidents -
WASHINGTON - Lawrence Davis, 47, of Washington, D.C., was convicted by a jury today of first degree premeditated murder while armed in the March 1999 stabbing of his estranged wife, the mother of three of his sons, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.
The verdict followed a trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The Honorable William M. Jackson scheduled sentencing for January 27, 2012.
According to the government’s evidence at trial, during the last six months of her life, the victim, Elizabeth Patrice Singleton, 32, sought and received both civil protection and stay-away orders against Davis, who had attempted to reconcile with her after he spent six years in prison. During this period, Davis violated the protection provisions of both orders by beating Singleton in September 1998, holding her at gunpoint and raping her in December 1998, threatening to kill her in December 1998, and harassing her in January and February of 1999.
On the morning of March 1, 1999, after dropping two of the Davis/Singleton children off at school, Davis returned to Singleton’s home in the 1700 block of A Street SE with their six-year-old son. As the child sat in the car outside, able to hear everything transpiring in the house, Davis entered the home and attacked Singleton immediately inside the front door.
Singleton died shortly thereafter as a result of more than a dozen stab wounds to her heart, lungs, and back.
Despite strong evidence of motive, the case, resting on the shoulders of the six-year old child witness, went cold for 12 years until an eyewitness came forward. The eyewitness knew Davis and saw him in the front yard of the Singleton home at the time of the murder. During the intervening years, the FBI had continued working on forensic evidence in the case and was able to develop a partial DNA profile, consistent with that of the defendant, from blood recovered from under the victim’s fingernails.
Davis’s conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of older homicide cases. In the past two years, the office has obtained convictions in numerous cases in which the murder took place at least eight years earlier. Last year, U.S. Attorney Machen created a special unit to prosecute these older homicide cases.
“After 12 years, the loved ones of a young mother killed in her own home have finally received the justice they deserve,” said U.S. Attorney Machen. “This law enforcement team, led by a member of our Homicide Section’s Cold Case Unit, refused to let a killer get away with murder, no matter how many years had passed. Today’s verdict should bring hope to the survivors of other victims whose murderers still walk free.”
In announcing the verdict, U.S. Attorney Machen commended the efforts of Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Detectives Jeffrey Owens and Jeffrey Williams, who revived the investigation and continued to investigate it through MPD’s initiative to solve cold cases. He also commended the work of retired MPD Officer Sabrina Green; retired Mobile Crime Technician Gerald Wills; Mobile Crime Technicians Jay Gregory, John Holder, James Holder, and Kemper Agee, and current MPD Officers Kim Miller, Frederick Lee, and Michael Smith. In addition, he praised the work of former Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Fitzpatrick, former Victim Witness Advocate Nicole Gaskin, and former Child Advocate Jacqueline O’Reilly.
U.S. Attorney Machen also extended his appreciation to current and former members of the FBI for their work on forensic evidence. In addition, he acknowledged the efforts of Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Marie-Lydie Y. Pierre-Louis, who conducted the autopsy in 1999 and testified at trial, as well as Paralegals Debra Joyner, Jason Manuel, and Lynita Green, Victim/Witness Advocate Tamara Ince, Litigation Support Specialist Thomas Royal, who assisted with trial preparation, and Intelligence Specialist Lawrence Grasso. Finally, he praised the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharon Donovan, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Haines, of the Cold Case Unit, who indicted the case and prosecuted it as a team at trial.
