One Pled Guilty to Murder, Two Others to Related Charges
WASHINGTON - Tavon Pinkney, 20, William Bass, 18, and Kalif Brown, 23, all of Washington, D.C., were sentenced today to prison terms on charges stemming from the shooting death of a man in Northeast Washington, U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips announced.
The three men pled guilty to charges in April 2016 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The pleas were contingent upon the Court’s approval. The plea agreements called for a 17-year sentence for Pinkney for second-degree murder while armed and a five-year prison term for Brown for robbery. The third plea agreement called for Bass to be sentenced to a term within the District of Columbia Voluntary Sentencing Guidelines for assault with intent to rob while armed. The Honorable Robert E. Morin accepted the pleas today and sentenced the defendants accordingly; Bass was sentenced to a 5 ½-year prison term. Following their prison terms, all three defendants will be placed on periods of supervised release.
According to the government’s evidence, just before noon on Feb. 16, 2015, the defendants were driven to the 300 block of 61st Street NE for purposes of conducting a PCP transaction with the victim, Rico Myers, 25, and his friend. Once there, the defendants entered an alley and Pinkney pulled a gun, demanding the victim’s possessions.
Bass began going through Mr. Myers’s pockets, while Brown robbed Mr. Myers’s friend. Mr. Myers began struggling to defend himself and Pinkney then shot him four times. The defendants ran to the waiting car on 61st Street NE, which then drove off.
Mr. Myers ran out of the alley and collapsed on a sidewalk in the 300 block of 61st Street NE. He was taken to a hospital, where all efforts to save his life were unsuccessful. An autopsy performed by the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death to be homicide.
In announcing the sentences, U.S. Attorney Phillips commended the work of the detectives of the Criminal Investigations Division, Homicide Branch, crime scene officers, and the Sixth Police District of the Metropolitan Police Department, as well as Special Agent Benjamin Inman of the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team. He also expressed appreciation for the work of the D.C. Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services and the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. He acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Victim/Witness Advocate Diana Lim, Victim/Witness Security Specialist M. Laverne Forrest, and Paralegal Specialist Lashone Samuels. Finally, he praised the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Spence, who investigated and prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
