Judge Karen Howze ordered Dwayne Williams held Tuesday on suspicion of premeditated first-degree murder in connection with the November 2011 shooting death of Ronald Deacon Smith.
Smith was expected to testify against Williams’ best friend David Warren, charging documents say. Warren was later convicted of murder for killing Ervin Lamont Griffin.
Five days after Warren was first presented in court, police found Smith dead, with a gunshot wound to the head, in the 1100 block of 21st Street Northeast, charging documents say. A second man shot in the incident survived.
The surviving victim told police that he and Smith were trying to buy PCP that day from Andre Hockaday, who is described in charging documents as a friend of Williams.
Hockaday walked Smith and the other man to the area of 21st and M street, and told them to wait while the drugs were delivered. Hockaday approached two other black men by himself, according to the surviving witness.
The surviving witness began to walk away, but, Hockaday called out, “They got it now,” or words to that effect, documents say. Smith headed directly towards the three men while the surviving victim stood in the street near a vehicle.
According to documents, the surviving victim was looking away when he heard a gunshot and saw Smith lying on the ground. Then a shooter, who the surviving victim described as having dreads, pointed a handgun at the surviving witness and shot multiple times.
Witnesses identified the two men at the scene as Williams and Stanley Isaac Moghalu, also known as “Smoke.”
Police did not confirm Tuesday if Moghalu is the same man acquitted in the murder of Steven Curtis Moore. Both men are referred to with the nickname of “Smoke” in documents. Prosecutors believe Moore was also killed because of his capacity to assist police.
Williams initially told police he was elsewhere when Smith was shot. After detectives presented Williams with cell site information as evidence of his involvement, Williams admitted to being at the scene of the homicide, according to the documents.
Shortly before the shooting, Williams said that Smith and the surviving passed the area where he, Hockaday, and Stanley Moghalu were standing. When Hockaday saw Smith and the surviving witness, documents say that he said something to the effect of, “There is that snitching a**.”
Williams said that he then heard gunshots, saw Moghalu and Hockaday with guns in their hands, and finally, saw both victims on the ground.
However, in a later interview, when Williams was asked how many times he fired the gun and who he pointed it at, Williams did not answer.
“Give me some time,” Williams told police.
On May 1, Williams told detectives in an interview that he needed time to go home and get his affairs in order because he was “afraid of the unknown,” documents say.
“Did you know it was going to feel like this afterwards?” Detective Thomas Braxton asked Williams, according to charging documents.
“Mr. Braxton, I didn’t really know,” Williams responded. “Have you ever been so disappointed in someone so bad, you don’t even want to be around them?”
“I can’t separate me from myself,” Williams said.
At the presentment hearing Tuesday, Williams’ attorney, Steven Kiersh, argued that the surviving witness’s statement was not sufficient probable cause to hold Williams because the witness did not fully observe the shooter’s face.
Kiersh also argued that the government took particular comments from Williams and falsely interpreted them as admissions of guilt.
A preliminary hearing is set for October 24 before Judge Rhonda Reid Winston at 9:30 a.m.
