Prosecutors say that Antwoine Boddie watched as Daquan Tinker ran across the 2600 block of Douglass Road Southeast and shot Terrence Robinson four times in a robbery attempt.
At the time, Boddie was being robbed by Tinker and four others, according to prosecutors, and he remembered the tall light-skinned man who put on a mask and held a gun to his head.
But Tinker’s defense attorney Andrew Crespo argued that after police learned Tinker was a light-skinned man from the area, they “stopped trying to solve the case,” and “starting trying to build a case” against Tinker. Crespo also told jurors that the case against Tinker lacks even a bullet fragment to tie him to Robinson’s murder.
Police found 48-year-old Robinson on August 4, 2012, in the 2600 block of Douglass Road Southeast suffering from four gunshot wounds. Tinker, now 18, is charged with first-degree murder, felony murder, armed robbery, and six related charges in connection with Robinson’s death.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rich DiZinno told jurors in opening statements Monday that both Boddie and Robinson were just trying to get to the Anacostia metro station that morning when Tinker targeted them for a robbery.
DiZinno said that at about 5:15 a.m., Boddie was walking to the metro station when he saw five individuals coming up Douglass Road towards him, including the tall light-skinned man who put on a mask. That man put a gun to Boddie’s head and told him to get on the ground.
From the ground, Boddie watched Tinker ran across the street to target Robinson, DiZinno said.
Crespo argued that Boddie “clearly described someone else as the true culprit” because Boddie’s description to police didn’t match Tinker’s height, age, eye color, hair color, or clothing. Furthermore, Crespo told jurors that Boddie did not pick out Tinker’s picture from a police set of nine photos less than three weeks after the incident.
In his opening arguments, DiZinno noted that within three hours of the incident, after speaking with police, Boddie saw Tinker and two others near the Anacostia metro in a “full 3-D view.” Boddie “locked eyes with Daquan Tinker,” the defense attorney said.
Additionally, Dizinno told jurors that Tinker’s cousin Kevon Green later told police that Tinker mentioned seeing Boddie outside the metro station and worried that Boddie would recognize him.
But Crespo said that Green was led out of his brother’s house in handcuffs after police executed a search warrant at the address. Then, in a “locked eight-by-eight interrogation room,” Greene was threatened with murder charges and questioned for over seven hours, Crespo told jurors.
Green wasn’t giving the answers that detectives wanted to hear, so finally Green lied, according to Crespo, and told detectives about the time “he heard Daquan Tinker confess.”
The trial is scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
