Prosecutors have dropped charges against murder suspect Marc Terrence Tapp, held for the killing of 19-year-old Jermaine Anderson, due to “witness issues,” according to court documents.
Judge Russell Canan signed an order releasing Tapp Dec. 18th, 2012.
Tapp, a YouTube rapper known as “Goo,” had spent about 19 months in D.C. jail since his Aug. 11, 2011 arrest.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kerkhof had argued that there was probable cause Tapp fired the shot that killed Anderson. Prosecutors cited cellphone records, a witness identification, and an alibi Tapp gave to police the night of the shooting they believed was false.
Prosecutors had maintained that after an Ivy City neighborhood block party May 11, 2011 at approximately 1:00 a.m., “Goo” and five or six other people were standing in a parking lot near the location of the shooting. Two witnesses identified Tapp as wearing a black hoodie near the scene of the crime and said they observed him shooting and running from the scene after Anderson was hit. Both witnesses identified Tapp from pictures, according to charging documents.
Other witnesses, though, gave completely different physical descriptions of the shooter. Some were unable to identify Tapp from the series of photographs.
Officers found 11 cartridge casings on the street near Anderson’s body and a Shotspotter system detected two sets of gunshot sounds during the time of the murder.
No other suspects have been arrested in connection with Anderson’s death.
