Norman Williams reflects on Jordan Howe's (his son's) death at a vigil Tuesday
To the young people gathered in a small apartment building parking lot off Alabama Avenue Tuesday night, Norman Williams pleaded: “Starting from now, today, we’re going to work together to do a little better,” he said.
For Williams, the moment was an important one: on the day he marked the first anniversary of his son’s killing he wanted young people to hear his voice.
“My son is gone in a senseless killing; I’m here to save someone’s life,” he said.
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From the U.S. Attorney’s Office
District Man Pleads Guilty to Two Murders -One Victim Slain on 17th Birthday, Other While With His Family -
WASHINGTON - Cornell Scrivner, 20, of Washington, D.C., pled guilty today to two counts of second degree murder while armed in two slayings that took place in Northeast Washington, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.
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From the U.S. Attorney’s Office:
Man Sentenced to 66 Years in Prison For February 2008 Murder - Multiple Victims Targeted Following a Fight Inside Night Club -
WASHINGTON - Dane D. Owens, 28, was sentenced today to 66 years in prison for his role in the February 17, 2008 shooting outside Club Envy that killed 23 year-old Dusaan Scully, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.
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Outside of the District, but interesting news today from Chicago.
In the Chicago Tribune this morning, Illinois legislators are considering a “murder registry,” much like a sex offender registry, to alert community members to murder parolees living in their neighborhood.
Rep. Dennis Reboletti, R-Elmhurst, a former Will County prosecutor who is the bill’s sponsor, said the murder registry would require murderers to stay on the list for 10 years after they leave prison.
The one-year anniversary of the violent South Capitol Street shooting that killed four people is due to be marked Tuesday with a vigil and walk.
A flier for the event is after the jump.
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Thirteen men were indicted today on charges stemming from several shootouts beginning in July 2009 in Southeast D.C., which resulted in two murders.
Melvin White, 27, was killed in the 600 Block of 46th Place SE in April 2010 and Antwan Buckner, 32, was killed in the same block in May 2010.
The defendants are:
- Raymond Davis, also known as Soldier Boy, 18;
- Deante Harding, also known as White Boy Tay, 22;
- Jean-Robert Jean-Baptiste, also known as Junior, 20;
- William Spriggs, also known as Weetie, 22;
- Curtis Faison, 19;
- Antonio Fortson, also known as T.O., 19,
- Anthony Hebron, also known as Peanut, 17;
- Lamonte Henson, also known as Tiggy, 19;
- Kevin Magruder, also known as Son, 29;
- Marcellus McCray, also known as Mateo, 17;
- Deandre Mungo, also known as Dee, 19;
- Timothy Parker, also known as Step, 33;
- Lamont Thomas, 20.
A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office is after the jump.
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Washington City Paper | Mar 14, 2011
On Friday, the city’s chief medical examiner suggested top Metropolitan Police Department officials could have gotten the facts right from the outset if only they’d checked in.
DCist | Mar 15, 2011
Pierre-Louis told Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary Chair Phil Mendelson that if one detective had simply asked the M.E.’s office for an update, they would have found that “there was really no trauma visible” to Mohammed’s body.
In January Tonya Bynum had nearly given up. Her 22-year-old son Maurice had been missing for eight weeks. She had to beg for police to take a missing persons report, and, as weeks went on and her gut told her that Maurice was more than missing, she begged again and again for more investigation.
“He just vanished off the scene of the earth,” she told Homicide Watch then. “Nobody’s heard anything. We’ve done everything we can do.”
Her instincts told her that Maurice was in danger. Or dead. The father of two children, an infant and a toddler, it wasn’t like him to just disappear, she said. And then there was a financial aid appointment at Westwood College scheduled for January 2. “He wouldn’t miss that,” she said.
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WTTG-TV 5 | Mar 10, 2011
Two D.C. cold cases have been solved with the arrest of a 21-year-old man. The unidentified suspect, who is currently in D.C. jail, has been charged with the murders of two D.C. teenagers in two separate shootings in Northeast in 2004 and 2005. 16-year-old Roderick Valentine, also known as “Hot Rod,” was gunned down at 4415 Quarles Street, NE on February 8, 2004. 17-year-old Louis Hastings was killed on September 5, 2005 on 56th and Eads Streets, NE. Police say they solved the cold cases when the 21-year-old man, who was recently arrested for a third homicide, confessed to the killings. Police say the shooter was just 14 years old when he committed the crimes.
A former D.C. prosecutor accused of ethics violations for authorizing payments to informants in a series of murder cases in the mid 1990’s may be disbarred for his conduct.
According to a report by USA Today, regulators have asked the D.C. Court of Appeals to take away former assistant U.S. attorney G. Paul Howes’ law license. If the Court does so, it will be the first time a prosecutor will have been disbarred in more than a decade, USA Today reports.
Tuesday’s hearing came 15 years after Howes was first accused of misusing thousands of dollars of witness vouchers in high-profile homicide cases here. The vouchers are supposed to be used to reimburse witnesses for costs associated with testifying in court, but Howes authorized payments to relatives and girlfriends of informants, an internal Justice Department investigation found. The informants helped him in an investigation of a gang implicated in a series of murders in a neighborhood 3 miles from the White House.
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