Anthony Garland Rice | Homicide Watch DC

Jury Begins Deliberations in Claire Rice's Murder Trial

Amelia Rufer — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 21:45:01 -0500

In closing arguments Friday, prosecutors portrayed the murder of Anthony Garland Rice as a calculated and well-planned execution, carried out by his cousin, Claire Rice, in order to cash in on two life insurance policies.

Rice's defense said she didn't need the money and argued that Anthony Rice may have simply been killed in a robbery.

"Looks are deceiving, because when you look at Claire Rice for the first time, you might not think about that gun she purchased right before the murder," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff told the jury.

Additionally, there are the two life insurance policies she took out on her cousin, the track phone she bought to call him, and a stun gun police found in her ceiling tiles, Kerkhoff told the jury.

During her argument, AUSA Kerkhoff held a manila envelope in her hands.

"In the early morning hours of December 17, 2012, Anthony Rice took this manila folder into Fort Lincoln Park."

Kerkhoff showed jurors the contents of the folder, which included his resume, a tradesman certificate, an electrician's license, his social security card and electrician training certificates stamped with dates spanning 1977 to 1981.

The government argued in trial that Anthony got in Claire's car in the middle of the night because he thought he was going to complete a handyman job for a friend of Claire's.

"He was excited about this opportunity. He had hope," Kerkhoff said. "This manila envelope was dropped feet from his body. Feet from where he was executed."

Police found Rice dead in Fort Lincoln Park. He was shot once in the heart and twice in the back of the head.

According to lead detective Hosam Nasr's testimony, visible brain matter in the pool of blood by Anthony's head proved that the shooter was less than three feet away when he was shot.

"When police arrived, this folder was the first clue, the first piece of evidence you had. Anthony tells you his [murder] was different with the envelope."

"We don't have to prove that she pulled the trigger, just that she was involved. She planned it so we wouldn't know," said Kerkhoff. "She's still guilty of what she's charged with and that is first-degree premeditated murder."

But Semyonova argued that Claire Rice had plenty of funding and wouldn't need to kill Anthony to save her mortgage, as the government had implied.

"There's a salary of $63,000 a year, there's the eligibility for social security, there's the $17,000 available in an Ameriprise account," Semyonova said.

The defense argued that there were alternate, more likely explanations for Anthony's death.

"We know that Mr. Rice was assaulted in the past. We know that he had drug debts. We know that he's in a park in the middle of the night," defense attorney Katerina Semyonova said. "You know his toxicology results. You know there are two different kinds of bullets in Mr. Rice’s body."

Toxicologist Lucas Zarwell testified in court that Anthony tested positive for two to three times the amount of cocaine in the bloodstream than Zarwell typically sees. According to Zarwell, it was entirely possible that Anthony could reach those levels through binge using between the hours of 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.

"A job interview isn't about binge use at 2:30 in the morning in a park," Semyonova said. "What makes sense is that he wasn't going for a job and that he didn't want to tell Natalie Tucker what he was doing -- that's what makes sense."

"An easy way of making that story more credible is by taking that folder."

Prosecutors: Anthony Rice's Death was Older Cousin's "Lottery Ticket"

Imari Williams — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 17:39:07 -0500

Claire Rice spent an entire month planning her cousin's murder in order to cash in on two life insurance policies, prosecutors alleged as Rice's trial opened Wednesday. The money would have kept Rice from from losing her house.

"Evidence will show she was living well beyond her means," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kerkoff said in opening arguments. "Rice owed $14,000 on her mortgage and as her financial problems mounted, she took out two life insurance policies on Anthony in which she was the sole beneficiary." Kerkhoff said that Anthony Rice's insurance was Claire's "lottery ticket" and an "investment."

Defense attorneys said the government's version of events is far-fetched and "makes no sense."

"Prosecutors theory is a patchwork of tunnel vision and conjecture," defense attorney Blase Kearney said.

Kearney argued that the government paints Claire Rice as some "insurance mastermind," but she never collected a dime on the policies. According to Kearney, the policies had a two-year-review period which showed that any policy holders who died within the two years of the period would automatically be under review by the insurance company.

Rice, 66, is charged with first-degree premeditated murder while armed and related weapons offenses in connection with the December 2012 fatal shooting of her 58-year-old cousin, Anthony Garland Rice.

Police found Rice dead in Fort Lincoln Park, right behind Thurgood Marshall Elementary School. He had been shot in the heart and twice more in the back of the head.

Kerkhoff warned the jurors not to be fooled by Rice's appearance or age.

"Looks can be deceiving," the prosecutor said. "Looks won't tell you that she made the payments on Anthony's life insurance, purchased a .38 revolver, and set up Anthony's murder."

According to prosecutors, Anthony's fiancee overheard Rice telling her cousin about a job she had for him and that she would "pick him up after work" the night before he was killed.

On Wednesday, Natalie Tucker testified that it wasn't unusual for Claire to help Anthony get odd jobs as an electrician.

"Claire told Anthony over the phone that she had a friend who bought a couple of houses that needed electrical work done," Tucker said.

According to Tucker, months later, a couple days before Anthony Rice's death, she called and told him "everything would be happening soon."

Tucker told jurors that the day before Anthony's murder, Claire called him and told him, "I'm on the way." She called 15 minutes later to say she was downstairs. Tucker said it was the last time she saw her fiancee.

Kerkhoff argued that Claire was the only person who had something to gain from Anthony's demise and that Claire even lied to police before she was even considered a suspect.

Rice's defense attorney Kearney argued that she lied because she was scared, stressed and being pressured by homicide detectives, and that there is a lack of evidence connecting Rice to her cousin's murder.

Rice's trial is scheduled to resume December 11 at 10:30 a.m. before Judge Rhonda Reid Winston.

Claire Rice Indicted in Anthony Rice Murder

Ivan Natividad — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 10:35:14 -0500

Claire Rice was arraigned Monday on charges of first-degree premeditated murder while armed and related weapons offenses in connection with the December 2012 shooting death of her 58-year-old cousin, Anthony Garland Rice.

Rice, 65, pleaded innocent to all charges and is held pending a status hearing January 10, 2014.

Police found Anthony Rice on December 17, 2012 around 11:00 a.m. dead and shot in a park on the 3100 block of Fort Lincoln Drive Northeast. An autopsy found he had suffered from gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Four months later his cousin, Claire Rice, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder while armed in Anthony Rice's death.

Court documents state that Anthony Rice may have been killed over a $100,000 insurance policy.

At a preliminary hearing in March, Metropolitan Police Detective Brian Wise testified that two life insurance policies totaling $100,000 were hidden in the ceiling of Claire Rice's home. Wise said that the policies were insured under Anthony Rice and that Claire Rice was the beneficiary.

One policy, purchased in 2010, and another in 2011, listed Claire and Anthony Rice as brother and sister, documents state.

According to charging documents, Rice initially told police she had not been in contact with her cousin in three months. She later said that she had spoken with Anthony Rice the day before he died, because of an outstanding $150 debt she owed him, court documents state.

When police searched Claire Rice's home, they found an antique firearm, a Maryland Police Training Commission Firearms Safety Course Certificate, and a document that authorized her to purchase a firearm in Maryland, court documents state.

The firearms found in Claire Rice's home were linked to the bullets recovered from Anthony Rice’s body.There was no evidence, however, that Claire Rice purchased the ammunition.

The case is scheduled for a status hearing on January 10, 2014.

Prosecutors Allege Claire Rice Murdered Cousin, Anthony, Over Life Insurance Policies

Penny Ray — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:07:52 -0400

Judge Lynn Leibovitz found substantial probability Wednesday that Claire Rice shot and killed her cousin, Anthony Garland Rice, last year.

Leibovitz also ruled that Rice is a danger to the community; she remains held while a grand jury investigates the case.

Prosecutors believe that Rice – who worked as a manager at an Applebee's restaurant – killed her cousin Dec. 17, 2012 to collect on two life insurance policies that she purchased in his name over two years ago.

Metropolitan Police Detective Brian Wise testified Wednesday that a search warrant of Rice's Silver Spring, Md. home recovered two life insurance policies totaling $100,000 hidden in the ceiling. Anthony Rice was the insured party, and Claire Rice was the beneficiary, Wise said.

One of the policies was purchased in 2010, and the other was purchased in 2011. Both policies listed Claire and Anthony as brother and sister, and the address on the policies belonged to Claire Rice.

Police have no knowledge of Anthony Rice ever living with his cousin, and detectives know that Claire Rice was making payments on at least one of the policies, Wise told the court.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Holly Shick said Wednesday that the government believes Rice listed her address on the policies “so that Anthony would not receive notification that a policy had been taken out in his name.”

Prosecutors also allege that in the weeks leading up to Anthony's murder, Claire Rice purchased a prepaid cell phone, a .38 caliber handgun, ammunition, and then on the morning of Dec. 17, 2012, lured Anthony from his home in order to carry out a plan that she concocted several years prior.

According to charging documents, early in the morning of Dec. 17, Anthony Rice told a friend that his cousin, Claire Rice, was going to drive him to meet someone about a handyman job. Anthony Rice, the documents say, was a certified electrician.

The witness told police that Claire Rice arrived at Anthony's apartment around 2 a.m., and that Anthony called the witness a half hour later saying that he was in the Fort Lincoln area and would return shortly. The witness never spoke with Anthony Rice again.

Police found Rice's body face-down in a park in the 3100 block of Fort Lincoln Drive Northeast; he died of multiple gunshot wounds to his head and chest. An envelope containing Anthony's electrician certifications was found near his body.

Claire Rice initially told police that she hadn't talked to Anthony for at least three months, but later told detectives that she had spoken to her cousin the night before his death – when he asked to borrow $150 to pay a drug debt. Her cousin had been assaulted by drug dealers in the past and sounded "in fear of his life," she said.

Claire Rice told detectives that she dropped Anthony off near Marshall Elementary School in Northeast D.C. and left 30 minutes later. She then led detectives to the area where she last saw her cousin and showed them the path Anthony took when he left her vehicle.

The path leads to where Anthony Rice was murdered, the documents state.

Three days later, Homicide Detective Hosam Nasr spoke with Claire Rice over the phone and asked her to be reinterviewed. Rice then recanted her previous story and told Nasr that Anthony never entered her vehicle, nor did she give him a ride, on the morning of the murder.

Then, on Jan. 4, 2013, Rice changed her story again, according to charging documents.

Rice's defense attorney, Marlon Griffith, said Wednesday that Rice changed her story because she was afraid that the drug dealers Anthony knew would harm her family.

Griffith also argued that the life insurance scheme prosecutors claimed didn't make sense.

Police never found the weapon used to kill Anthony Rice. Charging documents, though, state that Claire Rice bought a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson Model 36 revolver and ammunition.

The store owner told police he only sells two types of .38 caliber ammo, and one of them matched the bullets found in Anthony's body.

“This is very strong evidence that the firearm the defendant purchased is the firearm that caused the decedent's death,” Judge Leibovitz said Wednesday.

Leibovitz scheduled a felony status conference on Judge Ronna Beck's calendar for June 28.

Claire Rice Held in Shooting Death of Anthony Rice

Vanya Mehta — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:11:38 -0400

Claire Rice, 65, was ordered held Wednesday on suspicion of shooting and killing her cousin,Anthony Garland Rice.

Anthony Rice's body was found Dec. 17, 2012 near Marshall Elementary School in Northeast D.C.

Prosecutors argued Wednesday that there was a "high degree of planning that went into" the murder, adding that a gun was purchased under Claire Rice's name 11 days before the murder.

According to charging documents in the case, a relative told police that that Claire Rice was with Anthony Rice, an electrician, to "facilitate a handyman job" between Anthony and a friend the day Anthony Rice was killed.

Rice, however, told detectives she had not been in contact with her cousin in three months, charging documents state. She later told police that she spoke to him the day before his death because he requested $150 from her for an outstanding debt to drug dealers, the documents state.

In a search of firearms or weapons in her home, detectives found "multiple items" including an antique firearm and a Maryland Police Training Commission Firearms Safety Course Certificate dated Nov. 4, 2012. The firearms registration section in Maryland completed a background check on November 28, after which she would be authorized to purchase a firearm.

Detectives linked the firearm Rice purchased to the bullets recovered from Mr. Rice's body, both compatible with a red compound used in the gun and found in the bullet, according to the documents and evidence presented in court on Wednesday. They did not, however, find evidence that Claire Rice purchased this ammunition.

Defense attorney Marlon Griffith said Claire is a manager at Applebee's and lives in Silver Spring, Md. She has not been arrested in the past 40 years, he said.

"We need something more than 'I dropped him off and I lied about dropping him off' as evidence that she was the shooter," he said. "She has lived for over 25 years in the community with no record whatsoever, and the decedent is actually her cousin."

Rice is expected before Judge Ronna Beck for a preliminary hearing at 9:30 a.m. on March 20.

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Claire Rice Arrested in Death of Anthony Garland Rice

Chris Amico — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:08:24 -0400

Police arrested 65-year-old Claire Rice of Silver Spring, Md., Monday in the shooting death of Anthony Garland Rice.

Anthony Rice, 58, was found unconscious and pronounced dead on Dec. 17, 2012, in the 3100 block of Fort Lincoln Drive Northeast, just behind Thurgood Marshall Elementary School. It's unclear if he and Claire Rice are related.

MPD's statement is below:

Arrest Made in the Homicide in the 3100 Block of Fort Lincoln Drive, NE

(Washington, DC)-Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch announced an arrest has been made in the fatal shooting which occurred in the 3100 block of Fort Lincoln Drive, NE.

On Monday, December 17, 2012, at approximately 11:05 am, units from the Fifth District responded to 3100 block of Fort Lincoln Drive for an unconscious person. Upon arrival, officers located an adult male suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services personnel determined that the victim had no signs consistent with life. The decedent’s remains were transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner where an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause and manner of death.

The decedent is identified as 58 year-old Anthony Garland Rice of Northwest, Washington, DC.

On Tuesday, March 12, 2013, at approximately 2:20 pm, members of the Capitol Area Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested 65 year-old Claire Rice of Silver Spring, MD, pursuant to a DC Superior Court arrest warrant, charging her with First Degree Murder while Armed in the shooting death of Anthony Garland Rice.

NE DC Shooting Victim Identified as Anthony Garland Rice

Laura Amico — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:12:15 -0500

The death of man found unconscious near a Northeast DC elementary school Monday morning has been ruled a homicide.

MPD said Tuesday morning that the man, identified as 58-year-old Anthony Garland Rice, appeared to have been shot.

WJLA reported last night that Rice's body was found by a woman walking her dog:

A press release from MPD is below:

December 18, 2012

Homicide: 3100 Block of Fort Lincoln Drive, NE

(Washington, DC)-Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch are investigating a fatal shooting which occurred in the 3100 block of Fort Lincoln Drive, NE.

On Monday, December 17, 2012, at approximately 11:05 am, units from the Fifth District responded to 3100 block of Fort Lincoln Drive for an unconscious person. Upon arrival, officers located an adult male suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services personnel determined that the victim had no signs consistent with life. The decedent’s remains were transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner where an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause and manner of death.

The decedent is identified as 58 year-old Anthony Garland Rice of Northwest, Washington, DC.

The Metropolitan Police Department currently offers a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone that provides information which leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons wanted for any homicide committed in the District of Columbia.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the police at (202) 727-9099. Additionally, anonymous information may be submitted to the department’s TEXT TIP LINE by text messaging 50411.