Judge Russell Canan ordered 21-year-old Alexander Buckley held Friday in connection with the shooting death of Siobhan Lee in January.
Canan said Buckley was a danger to the community, and set a trial date of Jan. 13, 2014.
According to court documents, Buckley and Lee met on the smartphone application Tagged.
The service matches users by allowing them to check another user’s picture if they are interested in the person, and to check another box if they are not. Users interested in each other are given a forum to chat.
Buckley and Lee, 18, began communicating on the Internet service Jan. 18, sending text messages through the application. Eventually, prosecutors said, they exchanged their cellphone numbers.
Prosecutors think Buckley left the apartment he shared with several housemates at the 300 block of Kennedy Street Northwest to meet Lee.
Prosecutors say a witness told them that Lee said she needed directions to the 500 block of Missouri Avenue Northwest because she was meeting up with a man she met on Facebook. Investigators believe she was referring to Buckley, and instead of Facebook actually meant Tagged.
Buckley and Lee exchanged 11 phone calls the day before. Their last was at 1:58 a.m., when Lee didn’t pick up. Buckley sent her a text minutes later.
Residents nearby told police they heard gunshots around 2:30 p.m. — an hour before police arrived at 3:30 a.m. and found Lee dead next to a bus stop at 5th Street Northwest and Nicholson Street Northwest. Two bus lines were running sporadically at the time, Homicide Detective James Wilson testified.
Investigators later found Lee’s black iPhone hidden in a shoe in Buckley’s bedroom. They also found a handgun they believe belongs to Buckley inside the shared apartment.
It made for “compelling circumstantial evidence” that he played a role in the shooting, Judge Canan said.
Buckley’s defense attorney, Jason Downs, argued there wasn’t enough evidence linking Buckley to the scene. No one witnessed the shooting itself, Downs said.
It’s the second homicide in three months to allegedly involve online dating. Teen couple Joshua Mebane and Linda Bury met using another mobile application, MeetMe. They remain in D.C. Jail on suspicion of the Nov. 2012 death of cab driver Quadar Muhammad.
