Nilson Maldonado | Homicide Watch DC

Prosecutor: "Evidence Contradicts 'Accidental' Shooting Claim"

Imari Williams — Fri, 29 Aug 2014 16:06:35 -0400

A prosecutor argued Friday that Nilson Maldonado and his friends are working together to turn the fatal shooting of Anthony Sanchez into an accident, but the evidence, she said, shows otherwise.

At a preliminary hearing Friday, Judge Russell F. Canan found probable cause in the case against Maldonado for the shooting death of Sanchez on July 3, 2013. He will remain released under high-intensity supervision.

According to police, witnesses heard Maldonado say, "I didn't mean to shoot him," and that Maldonado tried to take the gun from Sanchez, they struggled, and the gun went off. But a medical examiner's report didn't match up with Maldonado's story of a struggle.

"The medical examiner expected to see soot or stippling if there was a struggle over the gun," MPD Detective Joshua Branson testified Friday.

According to court documents, Dr. Lois Goslinoski, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Sanchez, told police that a gun fired at close range, as during a struggle, would leave burn marks and stippling around the entry wound. She found none of that.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakcozy, the prosecutor, said that Maldonado lied to police multiple times.

Maldonado initially told police that he found Sanchez, 18, crawling and convulsing on the ground outside of his [Maldonado] girlfriend's apartment, as if on drugs, and that he took him to Washington Medstar hospital, charging documents say.

"He lied to police about not knowing about a shooting, where he found the victim, and about where he lived," Rakcozy told the court.

Defense Attorney Matthew Davies said that the only evidence in the case is that the shooting was an accident and that prosecution is speculating.

"The court has not seen anything that shows this wasn't an accident," Davies said. "The government is making assumptions."

Maldonado is scheduled for a felony status conference on Nov. 14 at 11:00 a.m. before Judge Canan.

Police Don't Believe Anthony Sanchez Was Shot By Accident

Chris Amico — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 14:10:12 -0400

The story Nilson Maldonado told police about how Anthony Sanchez died was that he'd found Sanchez outside Maldonado's girlfriend's apartment, crawling and convulsing on the ground, as if on drugs, and took him to Washington MedStar hospital. To friends, Maldonado said he shot Sanchez by accident, while they wrestled over a gun.

Police believe, however, that Maldonado simply "pointed a gun at Anthony Sanchez and fired, in conscious disregard at an extreme risk of death or serious bodily injury," charging documents say.

Maldonado is charged with second-degree murder while armed. Judge Karen Howze ordered him released under high-intensity supervision Thursday, pending a preliminary hearing on July 18.

When police searched the area where Maldonado first said he found Sanchez, on a sidewalk outside a Columbia Heights apartment, they found no blood or other evidence of a shooting, according to charging documents.

Witnesses later told police that Sanchez had been inside the apartment, watching a soccer game with Maldonado and two other friends. (One, Victor Bonilla, is named throughout the complaint but not referred to as a witness.) Sanchez spent much of the game "playing with" a handgun, documents say; he would unload it and load it, until someone told him to stop.

Police believe Sanchez was shot sometime after 1 a.m., based on a witness account. That witness, who had been watching the game earlier, recalled being woken up by Maldondo and Bonilla, and finding Sanchez sitting in the same love seat, with a gunshot wound to the chest. The witness told Maldonado to take Sanchez to the hospital.

Maldonado and Bonilla told friends (including the witness in the apartment) that Maldonado tried to take the gun from Sanchez, they struggled, and the gun went off. They repeated this story to several people over the days and weeks after Sanchez died.

Dr. Lois Goslinoski, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Sanchez, told police that evidence doesn't support this story, according to charging documents. She said a gun fired at close range, as during a struggle, would leave burn marks and stippling around the entry wound. She found none of that.

Further, there was "marginal abrasion" around the exit wound, and a bloodstain on the love seat where Sanchez had been sitting during the soccer game. That lead detectives to believe he was sitting when he was shot, not fighting over a gun, the criminal complaint says.

Police arrested Maldonado on July 2, nearly a year after Sanchez's death.

Read the full criminal complain below:

Nilson Maldonado Arrested in 2013 Death of Anthony Sanchez

Megan Arellano — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 17:15:56 -0400

Almost a year after the shooting death of Anthony Sanchez, police have arrested a 26-year-old Northwest D.C. man in connection with his death, MPD announced Monday.

The man, identified as Nilson Maldonado, is suspected of second-degree murder.

Police found 18-year-old Sanchez suffering from a gunshot wound at approximately 2:00 a.m. in the 2900 block of Sherman Avenue Northwest. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Councilmember Jim Graham previously said that Sanchez was a ward of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.

A press release from MPD is after the jump.

Arrest Made in 2013 Homicide: 2900 Block of Sherman Avenue, Northwest

(Washington, DC) – Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch have announced an arrest has been made in the homicide which occurred in the 2900 block of Sherman Avenue, Northwest.

On Saturday, July 13, 2013, at approximately 2:00 am, patrol officers from the Fourth District responded to a local hospital for a report of a gunshot victim. Upon their arrival, they located a male victim suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. The victim of this shooting, succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead.

The decedent was subsequently transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia where an autopsy was performed. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia ruled the manner of death to be a homicide caused by a gunshot wound.

The decedent has been identified as 18-year-old Anthony Sanchez of Northwest, Washington, DC.

On Wednesday, July 2, 2014, 26-year-old Nilson Maldonado of Northwest, Washington, DC, was arrested and charged with Second Degree Murder while Armed in connection to the homicide of Anthony Sanchez.