Reco Pernell Coates III and his attorney, Thomas Dybdahl, greeted each other with smiles yesterday just before Judge William Jackson accepted Coates’ plea of guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the 2007 murder of 39-year-old Anthony Collins.
Coates, 22, was arrested in 2009 and originally pled innocent to two counts of first-degree murder, burglary while armed, robbery while armed and several weapons charges. These charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
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Police have identified the man shot and killed by a police officer today as 28-year-old Justin Lionel Turner.
According to MPD, officers were called to a home on 17th Street Northeast between Newton and Monroe Streets by Turner’s grandfather. After they arrived, Turner allegedly tried to stab an officer from behind, and the officer turned and shot him.
In an interview with WTOP, MPD Chief Cathy Lanier said the officer suffered “multiple lacerations to his head, neck and hand.” She described the injuries “not life-threatening, but pretty serious.”
The full statement from MPD is below: Read more
A Metropolitan Police Department officer shot and killed 28-year-old Justin Lionel Turner Friday morning after being stabbed, according to news reports.
Officers were reportedly called to the house on 17th Street Northeast between Newton and Monroe Streets at about 6:45 a.m. to break up a fight between Turner and his grandfather. When they arrived, Turner attacked one officer from behind and stabbed him, according to police. Read more
Antonio Fortson, Lamonte Henson, Marcellus McCray and Timothy Parker were sentenced last week to prison terms ranging from three to 19 years after being convicted in July for their involvement in multiple gang-related shootings, which took the lives of Melvin White and Antwan Buckner.
According to the government’s evidence, on April 10, 2010, Kurtis Faison shot and killed White, whom Faison believed was assisting a rival gang. Read more
After being closed Monday and only partially open Tuesday, DC Superior Court is scheduled to reopen Wednesday, according to a notice to journalists from courthouse spokeswoman Leah Gurowitz.
According to a notice posted on the courts’ website, criminal cases that were scheduled for Monday are expected to be heard Wednesday at 10 a.m. Criminal cases that were scheduled for Tuesday will be heard Wednesday at 11 a.m.
Jurors who were assigned to cases before the storm (sitting jurors) are expected to report to their assignments at 11 a.m. Wednesday. Details for other jurors are here.
The DC Superior Court will stay closed on Tuesday.
The court planned to suspend all services Monday except for arraignments, but the entire courthouse was closed instead in the face of incoming Hurricane Sandy.
The storm was predicted to make landfall Monday evening.
The ongoing weather-related closure will bump back cases that were scheduled to be heard this week.
Online filing services continue to be available, and an emergency judge is on-call, according to the court’s website.
Hurricane Sandy has prompted the DC Superior Court to cancel all non-essential hearings Monday, spokeswoman Leah Gurowitz announced Sunday evening. The court’s decision will push back ongoing murder trials like that of Domique Bassil, among other court matters.
The court joins a long list of government agencies, universities and school districts that have announced they will be closed Monday.
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With Hurricane Sandy bearing down on the District of Columbia, schools and government agencies throughout the region face the prospect of power outages or disrupted services.
Hurricane Sandy produced strong winds and waves as it passed over the United States Navy Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Now the storm is on its way to the DC region. (United States Navy photo/Flickr)
District of Columbia Superior Court spokeswoman Leah Gurowitz says it’s too soon to know how the inclement weather will impact court operations next week.
In an email, she said it’s possible that the courthouse could open late or close except for essential proceedings. Those would include adult arraignments, juvenile referrals and 3-, 5- and 10-day hold hearings that were previously scheduled. The court is required by law to hold those hearings within certain timeframes, Gurowitz said.
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Dear Readers,
In mid-August I had to come to you with some bad news: that a combination of lack of funding and opportunities in other cities would force Homicide Watch D.C. to permanently shut down. Your response to that message was overwhelming, and the volume of support that Chris and I, as founders of Homicide Watch D.C., received was simply breathtaking. Your financial support quickly followed and in less than 30 days we raised more than $40,000 to not only keep Homicide Watch D.C. alive, but to transform it.
Today marks the official start of that transformation.
Sam Pearson, Penny Ray, and Jonah Newman join the Homicide Watch team as your editor and reporters. Each are uniquely qualified for the positions and were selected out of the dozens of internship applications that we received.
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Two weeks ago we marked an incredible milestone: we reached the $40,000 fundraising goal to keep Homicide Watch DC running.
Our goal is to get the site up and running again as soon as possible. We’ve had a tremendous number of applications from students applying for the internship and we’re going through each application trying to find you, our community, the best person to do the job.
As we finalize the hiring, we’ll start updating the site again starting this week. Those of you who have sent emails and photos to help fill in what we’ve missed, thank you. We’ll add that information in as soon as possible. And please, if you’re looking at the site and you see something that’s missing, leave a comment here or email me (laura@homicidewatch.org)
Thanks, again, for your support of Homicide Watch DC.
Sincerely,
Laura Amico, Editor
