A man charged with the murder of 16-year-old Deonte Payton and who had been on the run since mid-April was captured by District police on Thursday, the Washington Examiner reports.
Kendrick Phillips, 19, had been charged with shooting Payton and stuffing his body inside a closet in a vacant Southeast apartment in December 2009. Authorities had been searching for him since April 13 when Phillips cut off the ankle-monitoring bracelet he was ordered to wear while awaiting trial.
He was captured last week after a tipster alerted police that Phillips was in Southeast. The tipster recognized Phillips from an article in that day’s edition of the Examiner.
A funeral service for Ervin Lamont Griffin, who was shot and killed last Friday, is planned for 1 p.m. Saturday at Weston Chapel AME Church (Mt. Pisgah AME Church) in Greenwood, S.C., according to his obituary.
The Washington Times and the Washington Examiner have follow-up articles on the revelation earlier this week that the D.C. medical examiner’s office lost its national accreditation. The original story in the Washington Examiner said that the lack of accreditation could make the prosecution of homicide and other criminal cases more difficult.
The Examiner said that D.C. Gov. Vincent Gray is working to get the medical examiner’s accreditation back. Meanwhile, the Times’ article said that while the D.C. medical examiner’s office is “at a loss” to explain why its accreditation was not renewed, the National Association of Medical Examiners said it removed Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Marie Pierre-Louis from its list because she “is not board-certified in pathology and has been out of training too long to go back and obtain the certification.”
The Times also explained what impact the accreditation loss will have on criminal cases:
Mr. Mendelson, at-large Democrat, said defense attorneys may use the lack of accreditation in court as leverage, but “that only goes so far,” he said.
“Do you win because you’re board-certified? Probably not. Do we lose a case because we’re not? Probably not,” he added. “But would the prosecutor rather say we’re accredited? Yes.”
Thomas P. Mauriello, a lecturer on criminology at the University of Maryland, College Park, said a defense attorney may attack the credentials of a chief medical examiner even if he or she didn’t work on the case, “as long as it confuses the jury enough.”
“Losing any accreditation allows the defense to question anything that comes out of the office,” he said. “It doesn’t mean the office isn’t doing good work. It is about a professional standard that has not been met.”
U.S. Marshals are searching for a 19-year-old man who is accused of killing a teenager and leaving his body inside a District apartment, according to the Washington Examiner.
Kendrick Phillips was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in September in connection with the December 2009 shooting death of Deonte Payton, who was 16. Payton’s body was left in the apartment for up to 10 days, according to court records.
The Washington Examiner reports that Phillips is on the run after being released to await trial:
At Phillips’ bond hearing, D.C. Superior Court Judge Gerald I. Fisher, substituting for trial Judge Lynn Leibovitz, released Phillips and ordered him to wear an ankle-monitoring bracelet while he awaited trial.
On April 13, the District’s pre-trial services agency received an electronic alert that the bracelet had been tampered with overnight, authorities said. Leibovitz called for an emergency hearing and issued a warrant for Payton’s arrest. He hasn’t been spotted since.
U.S. Marshals Service deputies believe Phillips is still in possession of the firearm used to kill Deonte, and he should be considered armed and dangerous.
Phillips, who is also known as Ken-Ken, is described as being about 5-feet-7 and 130 pounds.
The Exainer said anyone with information regarding Phillips’ location should call U.S. Marshals Inspector Bob Hoffmaster at 202-345-7036, or the Marshals Service at 301-489-1717 or 800-336-0102.
The D.C. medical examiner’s office has lost its national accreditation, which will make the prosecution of criminal cases — including homicide — more difficult in the District, according to the Washington Examiner.
The paper said defense attorneys will now more easily be able to attack evidence that comes from the office in court. The loss of accreditation could also keep the agency from moving into a new forensics lab set to open next year.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner lost accreditation because the chief lacks board certification, the Examiner reported. The Office conducts autopsies in homicide cases, in addition to a number of other duties.
An article in The Washington Examiner yesterday compared 2011 and 2010 figures on young homicide victims:
More young people are ending up homicide victims … Of the first 34 people killed in the city in 2011, 13 were 21 and younger. A year ago during the same time, there were 32 slayings, and 10 victims were 21 or younger.
Earlier this month Homicide Watch reported that in the first four months of 2011 a much larger proportion of homicide victims were 21 years old and younger than in the same period last year.
You can find more information about this year’s homicide victims and an interactive timeline of young homicide victims below.
Last night WUSA 9 posted a short article about the D.C. cold case squad that identified suspects in Joyce Chiang‘s murder, and reports that the squad is ramping up efforts:
The announcement Friday that two suspects have now been identified in the 1999 murder of Joyce Chiang marked the 8th time this year in Washington that a cold case has been solved.
At this rate, DC police will solve, or close, nearly two dozen cold case murders in 2011, twice the number that was closed just four years ago.
…
[Police Chief Cathy Lanier is] hoping to close as many as 30 cold cases this year and, to that end, she’s placing an even greater emphasis on investigating older murders. To help in the effort, the U.S. attorney’s office will now dedicate a full-time prosecutor to the DC Police cold case squad.
D.C. police have officially classified the death of Joyce Chiang, an Immigration and Naturalization Service lawyer, as a homicide. However, at a press conference announcing the development today, police said they did not have enough evidence to prosecute anyone in the case, and D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the case was considered closed.
Chiang, who was 28 years old when she died, went missing in January of 1999. Her body was found on the banks of the Potomac River several months later. Police initially believed her death was a suicide.
The Associated Press via the Washington Post reported that a government official said police had identified two suspects in the case who had already been convicted for several robberies and abductions the year of Chiang’s death. One is serving a life sentence in Maryland and the other was deported to Guyana.
Lanier declined to name any suspects at the press conference.
According to the Associated Press, Roger Chiang, Joyce’s brother, spoke at the press conference about his sister’s case:
[Chiang] thanked D.C. police for aggressively investigating the case the past few years and especially for classifying the death as a homicide. Roger Chiang said he and other family members were outraged in 2001 when then-Assistant Police Chief Terry Gainer said he believed Joyce Chiang had committed suicide.
Police work that led the classification of his sister’s death as a homicide “restored her honor,” Roger Chiang said.
John Walsh, the host of “America’s Most Wanted,” also spoke about the case:
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A little over two weeks ago we launched an effort to “help pay Karen” while I’m out of town for 12 days at a conference. Thanks to the many of you who stepped forward and did just that!
Your contributions raised $325, meaning that we’ll be able to pay Karen $500 for her time, efforts and talent. Because of your generosity, we also have $75 to put into our “spot news” freelancers fund.
Thank you for your support, financial and otherwise. Without it Homicide Watch could not exist.
Karen starts this morning and I, for one, am looking forward to her reports.
Best,
Laura Amico
MPD Chief Cathy Lanier is expected to make an announcement tomorrow about a homicide case that’s been cold for more than a decade.
AP (via WaPo), WJLA, WUSA, City Paper and Fox5 all have the story.
According to those reports, three suspects have been identified in the slaying of Joyce Chiang, a lawyer for the Immigration and Naturalization Service who was 28 years old when she died.
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