Antoine Boddie started his day by taking out the trash and ended his day as a witness to murder, prosecutors say.
On Tuesday, Boddie, 55, testified in the murder trial of 18-year-old DaQuan Tinker, who is charged with premeditated first-degree murder, felony murder, and four other charges in connection with the shooting death of Terrence Robinson.
As Boddie walked to the dumpster around 5:15 a.m., he said in court, he saw a group of five young African-American men walking down Douglas Road. He described four of the men as dark-skinned African Americans and one as a light-skinned black man who was leading the group wore a ski mask.
Despite having a cellphone attached to his belt, Boddie didn’t call for help because he didn’t want the men to notice that he had a phone.
“I felt that it was pretty odd that time of morning,” Boddie said, “I turned my head away, and by the time I dumped the bag in the dumpster and [tried to turn] around, I had a gun upside my head.”
Boddie testified that one man held a gun against his head and told him, “Get down on the ground or I’ll blow your f**ing brains out.”
The men took his backpack, prosecutors say, which contained his wallet with identification, a credit card and a debit card, as well as the “three dollars and some cents” he had in his pocket.
Though the men told Boddie to keep his head down, he said he “took a chance to look around,” and saw that the light-skinned man “had branched off and went across the street.”
Boddie told jurors he could see the light-skinned man, but that a row of bushes obstructed his view. According to Bodie, he heard a man say, “I’m going to the subway station.”
About five seconds after hearing the word “subway,” Boddie heard gunshots, three or four of them.
“I was just hoping I wasn’t next,” Boddie told the court.
He made it home. When he returned to his residence, Boddie called 911 and told police that he was robbed. In court Tuesday, Boddie said recognized a .38 revolver used in the robbery because of the width of the barrel.
Defense attorneys questioned whether Boddie could accurately tell what type of gun was used, given that Boddie admitted he couldn’t see the gun in the dark.
Later that morning, near Anacostia Metro station, Boddie said he passed three young black men “within one arm’s length” on the crosswalk. Boddie thought he recognized the light-skinned individual as the same man who held a gun to his head and allegedly shot Robinson.
Boddie said told police, who then retrieved video from a nearby security camera to verify the claim.
That video shows three men walking toward the Anacostia metro. In the background, a police car pulls up to the metro and a passenger gets out. One minute later, according to the recording’s time stamp, Boddie is seen walking past the same camera heading away from the metro.
Officer Charles Williams testified that he dropped Boddie off that day. Williams told jurors that he has a “recollection…aside from the video,” that the video is consistent with the “time, place and day” of Boddie’s ride.
In the video taken from the elementary school, Boddie is seen pumping his fist in the air as he walks by. Boddie testified that the arm motion was because he knew he had seen the young men who robbed him earlier that morning. “It felt good,” Boddie told the court Tuesday.
The trial will resume on October 6 at 9:30 a.m. before Judge Robert Morin.
