Homicide Watch is devoted to bringing you the most up-to-date news on DC homicides. This includes: court proceedings, reporting new crimes, arrests, etc. Now that 2013 is coming to a close, let’s take a look back on the ten cases that captured our attention this year.
This list of ten cases was created based on your suggestions, our observations and an analysis of which stories were most read or most commented on.
The Navy Yard Shooting
The shooting inside a heavily secured building at the Washington D.C. Navy Yard on Sept. 16 was the worst single loss of life in Washington D.C. since 1982. Twelve people were killed. The gunman, Aaron Alexis, of Fort Worth, Texas, acted alone. He was shot by police during the incident and died. The FBI said in a statement that Alexis may have had “a delusional belief that he was being controlled or influenced by extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves.”
The names of those killed are as follows:
- Michael Arnold, 59, a retired naval officer
- Sylvia Frasier, 53, worked night shifts at a Maryland Wal-Mart
- Martin Bodrog, 54, a retired Navy Surface Warfare Officer
- Arthur Daniels, 51, handyman, husband, and father
- John Roger Johnson, 73, father
- Kathleen Gaarde, 63, wife, mother
- Mary Knight, 51, information technology contractor for the military
- Frank Kohler, 50, community service volunteer
- Kenneth Proctor, 46, utilities operation foreman at Navy Yard and father
- Gerald Read, 58, volunteered with his wife to take care of rescue dogs
- Richard Michael Ridgell, 52, security officer at a Navy Yard, softball coach, and father
- Vishnu Pandit, 61, engineer, husband, father
21st and Vietnam Trial
Anthony Hatton, Jekwan Smith, Johnnie Harris and Stanley Moghalu who prosecutors alleged were part of the gang “21stand Vietnam” were charged with 21 criminal counts including conspiracy, first-degree murder, obstruction of justice, assault and weapons charges in connection with the 2011 shooting deaths of Tyrell Fogle, Isaiah Sheffield, and Steven Moore.
Their lengthy trial— lasting nearly five weeks— was eclipsed by even longer jury deliberations, which finally concluded in December.
Jurors found Smith and Harris innocent of first-degree murder while armed in connection with Sheffield’s death and Harris and Moghalu were found innocent in connection with Moore’s death. But jurors could not reach decisions on other charges in the cases, including charges of first-degree premeditated murder while armed, conspiracy, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and carrying a pistol without a license in connection with Fogle’s death. Hatton is charged with those crimes.
Fogle, 17, was shot and killed on Aug. 29, 2011, in the 1900 block of Bennett Place Northeast. On September 24th, less than one month later, Sheffield, 24, was shot and killed in the 1100 block of 21st Street Northeast. Prosecutors believe they were murdered based on their affiliation with rival gang “E Street.”
Steven Moore, 36, was shot and killed on Dec. 3, 2011, in the 1100 block of 21st Street Northeast.
Moghalu is scheduled to be retried January 14. Smith’s, Harris’ and Hatton’s cases have been transferred to Judge Lynn Leibovitz. They are held pending a status hearing on January 17.
Alexander Gomez-Enamorado Trial
“Thank God, thank you,” Miguel Ventura‘s daughter whispered after jurors found Alexander Gomez-Enamorado guilty of two separate counts of murder in connection with the 2010 stabbing death of her father.
It had been almost three years since Ventura, 54, was found stabbed on the floor of a restaurant he owned in the 1200 block of 11th Street Northwest.
At trial prosecutors argued that Jose Reyes and Gomez-Enamorado planned together to rob Ventura in the early morning hours of Nov. 8, 2010. They were armed with a knife. But when things went wrong, Reyes stabbed Ventura at least ten times, including once through his right eye.
After one week of testimony and one day of deliberations, jurors found Gomez-Enamorado guilty of first-degree murder while armed, felony murder, conspiracy, robbery, burglary, tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice.
Reyes, his friend and alleged accomplice, is believed to be in Mexico. Assistant U.S.Attorney Glenn Kirschner said Reyes is not “off the radar” and that he would be extradited to the United States to stand trial.
Albrecht Muth Trial Preparations
Albrecht Muth’s self-induced fast has prevented him from attending court hearings in a case charging him with the death of his 91-year-old wife, Viola Drath, but the case has proceeded and is expected to go to trial at the start of the New Year, even if Muth’s health is too diminished for him to be present.
Muth is currently being held at the United Medical Center. In October Muth’s physician, Dr. Russom Ghebrai, said that Muth then weighed 92 pounds and that his condition wass “progressively getting worse.” In late November, Ghebrai said Muth was “eating sometimes, and fasting most of the time.”
Says Muth: “breaking the fast is not an option. I have been told by the Holy Father and it is passed upon me by St. Gabriel.”
Omar Sykes’ Death
2013 is the second consecutive year that D.C. has experienced an Independence Day murder. This time, it was Howard University student Omar Sykes. His death is believed to be the result of a random robbery gone wrong.
Skyes, 22, was found suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the 700 block of Fairmont Street Northwest. Three months later, police arrested 26-year-old Rasdavid Lagarde was ordered held in the case on suspicion of first degree murder. A preliminary hearing for Lagarde has been scheduled for January 8.
Jenkins Siblings’ Deaths
A shooting in July that left two siblings, Jamie and Jamahl Jenkins dead in Northeast D.C. may have been the result of a disagreement between two women and ended when a friend, Kevin Walker, intervened.
Police found the siblings at around 4:35 a.m. on the 5300 block of East Capitol Street Northeast shot and unconscious. Jamie, 28, was transported to a local hospital where she later was pronounced dead. Jamahl, 21, was declared dead immediately on the scene, an autopsy states.
Walker was arrested by U.S. Marshalls in North Carolina on Sept 26.
Johnny Sweet Trial
Johnny Sweet was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, first-degree premeditated murder and tampering with physical evidence in connection with Latisha Frazier’s 2010 beating death.
Sweet was the only person to stand trial; all other co-defendants in the case pleaded guilty. Three of them were sentenced this year: Laurence Hassan, who received an 18-year prison sentence; Cinthya Proctor, 21 years; and Brian Gaither, 32 years.
“The reason I didn’t cry at trial is because I knew I was gonna lose,” Sweet said at his sentencing. “I went to trial to prove I didn’t do certain things. I apologize to the Frazier family and I apologize to my family. Hopefully one day y’all will forgive me. But if you don’t, I understand.”
He was sentenced to 52 years in prison.
Grant Johnson Trial
A jury found Grant Johnson, 37, guilty of first-degree premeditated murder while armed, second-degree murder while armed, armed robbery, and related weapons offenses in connection with the shooting death of Ricardo Mandrell Lancaster.
Lancaster’s body was found with multiple gunshot wounds on May 31, 2012. He had been left for dead in the driver’s seat of a parked SUV in the 800 block of Burns Street South East.
Prosecutors argued that Johnson shot and killed his best friend’s younger brother for money.
Johnson is scheduled for sentencing in February.
Alexander Buckley Plea
Alexander Buckley, 22, pleaded guilty this summer to second-degree murder while armed in connection with the shooting of 18-year-old Siobhan Nicole Lee.
Lee was killed after she and Buckley exchanged several text messages and phone calls, and later decided to meet early one morning last January at a bus stop near 5th and Nicholson Street Northwest. According to plea documents, Buckley shot Lee behind her left ear then took her iPhone and iPod Touch. Judge Russell Canan sentenced Buckley to 22 years in prison.
Balleto Nightclub Shooting
One of two homicides this year in the Dupont Circle and Farragut North neighborhoods, Paul Danzo, 24, was killed after being involved in a fight at Balleto Nightclub, about a block from the Farragut North Metro station.
Two men are in custody in connection with Danzo’s death. Michael Smith, 33, pleaded guilty in November to fleeing law enforcement, acting as an accessory after the fact to an assault with intent to kill, and a weapons charge. Co-defendant Erik Postell, 23, is suspected of first-degree murder while armed.
Court documents state that several hours before Danzo was shot, surveillance video captured Smith and Postell arriving at the Colonial Parking Garage near the Balleto Club. They were driving a black BMW. Later, video footage from shows Smith, Postell and two other men entering the Balleto Club. Early that morning witnesses heard four gunshots coming from 17th Street and said they saw a black man turn and rush toward a black BMW that fled the scene. An MPD officer chased the black BMW which was headed towards 15th street Northwest and recovered .45 pistol which matched evidence from the shooting.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the cause of the loss of life in 1982. It was a plane crash, not a shooting.
