Nathaniel Dwight Simms testified yesterday in the South Capitol Street murder trial against his five former co-defendants; Simms pleaded guilty in April 2010 to five counts of second-degree murder while armed.
A links roundup of the testimony is after the jump.
Reported WJLA:
He described himself as a drug dealer from 6th Street Southeast, and according to his testimony his choice of neighborhood friends is what led to his downfall.
According to Simms, the defendants, the Carter brothers, Orlando and Sanquan, were the ones behind all of the violence, while he and the others were followers, doing the Carters bidding because they were neighborhood friends.
“I knew what we did was wrong,” a tearful Nathaniel Simms said on the stand, “Every night it’s all I really think about.”
Reported the Washington Post:
In court Wednesday, Brittin asked Simms if he knew the names of the three people who died in the final shooting along South Capitol Street in Southeast. Simms admitted to opening fire on a crowd — many had attended Howe’s funeral earlier in the day — with an AK-47-style assault rifle from a moving minivan.
Simms recited them: Brishell Jones, 16, DeVaughn Boyd, 18, and William Jones III, 19. Brishell’s mother rushed from the courtroom as he did.
Hours before the March 22 shooting, Simms testified, he was gambling with Best and Orlando Carter. As he drove them home, Carter’s cellphone rang: It was his brother Sanquan, who said that his gold-colored bracelet had been stolen while he was at the Alabama Avenue party.
Simms said Orlando Carter took the wheel and drove to the home of a woman said to be Carter’s “godmother.” He went to the door, Simms said, and then returned with the assault rifle inside his coat.
Brittin held up the rifle, a brown leather shoulder strap dangling from it, in the courtroom. Some of the victims’ family members ran weeping from the room when they saw it.
Simms is expected to continue his testimony Thursday, WJLA and the Post reported.
Find more links roundups from the South Capitol Street murder case here.
