Despite a government shutdown, operations at D.C. Superior Court are proceeding as planned, with all scheduled hearings and trials underway and filings and payments being accepted.
Those on jury duty are expected to report for service. At least one murder trial is expected to be seated this week. Read more
An interfaith prayer service for those affected by the Navy Yard shooting is planned for tonight. Details are below.
THE MAYOR’S INTERFAITH COUNCIL OF WASHINGTON, DC PRESENTS… AN INTERFAITH PRAYER SERVICE IN SUPPORT OF THE FAMILIES AND VICTIMS OF THE NAVY YARD TRAGEDY
WHEN:Wednesday, September 25, 2013
WHERE: Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, 901 3rd Street, NW
TIME: 7:00 p.m.
Please join Mayor Gray and the Mayor’s Interfaith Council for an ecumenical service of prayer and music for healing, hope, justice
Judge Russell Canan sentenced Earl Johnson Tuesday to 14 years and three month in prison for the August 2012 stabbing death of 29-year-old Antoinette Mitchell.
Johnson, 41, pleaded guilty in April to voluntary manslaughter in Mitchell’s death.
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A 21-year-old DC man who pleaded guilty in May to participating in a 2009 shooting that killed a 15-year-old bystander was sentenced today to 25 years in prison.
Antonio Barnes was one of three young men who accepted responsibility for Davonta Artis’s death by pleading guilty to manslaughter. Co-defendants Earl Jackson, 20, is expected to be sentenced in September and Sequarn Tibbs, 22, in November.
A press release from the US Attorney’s Office is after the jump.
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A shooting in Columbia Heights just before midnight Saturday left one man dead and injured a juvenile, WUSA reports.
In a message on the 3rd District listserv Sunday morning, Jonathan Monk wrote:
Around midnight tonight, 3D footbeat officers heard the sound of gunshots in the 1300 block of Columbia Road, N.W. Shortly thereafter, the officers located two male victims. One victim was transported to the hospital with life threatening injuries and the second victim was transported to the hospital with non life threatening injuries.
Anyone with information is asked to call 202-727-9099.
A man was shot and killed early Saturday morning in Southeast DC, WJLA and NBC Washington report.
Reports WJLA:
Police were called to the 1300 block of Savannah St. SE for shots fired around 2:30 a.m. A man was found suffering from several gunshot wounds to the upper body. He was pronounced dead at an area hospital.
The following DC Alert was issued in connection with the case:
Police Alert-Shooting _0232 HRS _1300 SAVANNAH ST SE_NO LOOKOUT DO NOT TAKE ACTION CALL 911 W/EVENT # I201304459… http://t.co/M0zgqAWNyZ
— dcalerts (@dcalerts) August 31, 2013
When Miguel Ventura was stabbed repeatedly to his death at his downtown DC restaurant in November 2010, it was a robbery attempt gone awry. Soon it will be up to jurors to decide whether that makes sense, and whether one of the men prosecutors say is responsible for the crime, is guilty of murder.
In a trial that has lasted one week, prosecutors have argued that that man, Alexander Gomez-Enamorado never planned to let Venture walk out of Izalco, Ventura’s restaurant, alive. Gomez-Enamorado and accomplice, Jose Reyes, had been planning the robbery for four days, they said, and have charged Gomez-Enamorado with three counts of felony murder while armed, conspiracy, robbery, burglary, tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice. The suspected accomplice,Reyes, is believed to be in Mexico.
Jurors in the case heard these closing arguments from prosecutor Wednesday after one week of testimony; arguments from the defense are expected Thursday morning.
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This time last year we were closing in on the one-week mark for a Kickstarter campaign to keep Homicide Watch DC alive. I was about to embark on a Nieman-Berkman fellowship at Harvard, and without me present in DC it was unclear how the site was going to continue publishing. It was a nail-bitting moment.
Working on this beat in DC has been so incredibly meaningful for me that I can not adequately express my gratitude to you for taking part in this experiment. Together we have changed the face of crime reporting and told the world that the common news values for violent crime reporting are wrong. We have said, together, with one voice, that how people live and die here, and how those deaths are recognized, matters to every one of us.
In an effort to continue this valuable work we are seeking to transform Homicide Watch DC into a student reporting lab. We need $40,000 to do it, and we hope you will help us.
More than one thousand people answered that call, raising $47,450.
Our paid interns have included: Sam Pearson, Penny Ray, Jonah Newman, Vanya Mehta, Ivan Natividad, and Megan Arellano. They are among the brightest young professionals I know and it has been a privilege to work with them.
What they have accomplished in running Homicide Watch DC has been nothing short of remarkable. Traffic and audience engagement have grown, yes, but they’ve also expanded the core competencies of what Homicide Watch DC does, adding day-in-day-out coverage of trials, creating new ways of checking data, and building more feature work into our coverage.
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Closing arguments began Wednesday in the case charging four alleged members of a crew called “21st and Vietnam” with the deaths of Tyrell Fogle, Isaiah Sheffield and Steven Moore. Prosecutors in the trial say that defendants Anthony Hatton, Jekwan Smith, Johnnie Harris, and Stanley Moghalu, are linked to the shooting deaths by their loyalty to a group called “21st and Vietnam,” an area near 21st and I Street in Northeast DC.
The defendants in this case are charged with 21 counts including conspiracy, first-degree murder, obstruction of justice, assault, and weapons charges related to the 2011 shooting deaths of Fogle, Sheffield and Moore.
Prosecutor Laura Bach addressed conspiracy charges and weapon possession in today’s closing argument, saying Hatton, Smith, Harris and Moghalu never sat down and said “Hey, let’s conspire to murder and obstruct justice.” Instead, the men were bound by the common purpose to protect one another she said. And the testimony of Delrico Shuford, a former crew member, showed their loyalty to “21st and Vietnam”.
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The death of a woman found unconscious and unresponsive in Southeast DC Wednesday morning is under investigation.
The case has not been ruled a homicide; such a determination will be made by the medical examiner pending an autopsy.
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