Defendant Shot Victim Seven Times in the Back
WASHINGTON - Raymond Faunteroy, 29, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to 19 years in prison for his role in the December 2011 killing of a man in Northeast Washington, Acting U.S. Attorney Vincent H. Cohen, Jr. announced.
Faunteroy pled guilty in June 2015, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, to second-degree murder while armed. He was sentenced by the Honorable Jennifer Anderson. Following his prison term, Faunteroy will be placed on five years of supervised release.
Judge Anderson sentenced a co-defendant, Jarod Yorkshire, to a 37-year prison term on July 24, 2015. Yorkshire, 21, of Washington, D.C., was found guilty by a jury in May 2015 of first-degree murder while armed, obstruction of justice, and related charges.
According to the government’s evidence, on Dec. 16, 2011, the victim, Derrick Ragland, 19, orchestrated a sham gun sale with Faunteroy and Yorkshire. The gun sale was a ruse, and masked men fired at both Yorkshire and Faunteroy, grazing Faunteroy in the hand. The two men then hatched a plot to gain revenge against Mr. Ragland.
Three days later, on Dec. 19, 2011, Yorkshire encountered Mr. Ragland at a home in the 1000 block of Taussig Place NE. He texted and called Faunteroy 29 times prior to the murder to alert him to Mr. Ragland’s whereabouts. Yorkshire and two witnesses then entered a vehicle that began to drive around the neighborhood. According to the government’s evidence, Faunteroy ambushed the victim from behind, shooting him seven times in the back as Mr. Ragland ran for his life down an alley in the 1000 block of Taylor Street NE before collapsing in a neighbor’s yard. Despite the best efforts of emergency personnel, Mr. Ragland later died of his wounds.
Immediately after the shooting, Faunteroy and Yorkshire spoke seven more times by phone as Yorkshire directed the driver of the vehicle to Faunteroy’s location. According to the government’s evidence, Faunteroy confessed to the murder upon entering the vehicle, and then directed the driver to drop him off at a location away from the crime scene.
Cellular tower records demonstrated that both Yorkshire and Faunteroy were in the vicinity of the murder at the time it occurred.
Following the murder, Yorkshire began a campaign of witness intimidation and obstruction of justice. He instructed one witness to refuse to cooperate with police in the homicide investigation and resulting court proceedings; corruptly persuaded another witness to provide false information to a defense investigator in an attempt to be called as a witness at trial to provide knowingly false testimony; and finally agreed in a recorded call with a police informant to cooperate in a scheme to kill a government witness.
In announcing the sentence, Acting U.S. Attorney Cohen recognized the efforts of the detectives, evidence technician, and officers who investigated the case for the Metropolitan Police Department, as well as the Special Agent from the FBI who provided expert testimony concerning cellular site evidence concerning the whereabouts of the defendant. He also commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Glenn Kirschner and Michael Spence, who tried the case, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jennifer Kerkhoff and Emily Miller and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Reagan Taylor, who investigated and indicted the case, and finally the work of Paralegal Specialists Meridith McGarrity and Lashone Samuels, Litigation Technology Specialist Leif Hickling, and Investigative Analyst Zachary McMenamin.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
