It’s been three years, four months and 24 days since Darond Lucas died in the grass outside 1644 W Street Southeast. It’s been two years, six months and 23 days since Joshua Andrews was arrested in connection with Lucas’s death. In that time, four different trial dates were set and four different defense attorneys have represented the case.
But on Tuesday morning, jurors heard opening statements in the case charging Andrews with first-degree murder while armed, assault with intention to kill, and three related weapons charges.
Prosecutors allege that Andrews and Lucas were part of a beef that ended with murder. They believe that, on June 5, 2010, Andrews and another man waited for Lucas outside 1644 W Street Southeast. As Lucas exited the building, Andrews and the other man each shot at Lucas multiple times. Then, after Lucas fell to the ground, Andrews leaned over Lucas’s body and continued to shoot.
Charging documents say that Lucas’s wounds included three gunshots to the head, one to the neck, and eleven other wounds across his torso. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.
But defense attorneys say that witnesses in the governments case have been manipulated into spurious testimony. Attorney Craig Moore further argued that the case against Andrews has no eyewitnesses, no guns, and that the government’s evidence is circumstantial.
“Listen carefully to what the firearms examiner had to say about it [the murder],” Moore said in opening statements Tuesday, “And think about the government’s claim about where somebody could run to.”
The trial is scheduled to resume Wednesday in Judge Ronna Beck’s courtroom.
