Victims Were Standing in the Window of Their Home When Defendant Opened Fire
WASHINGTON - Cortez Williams, 29, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to a nine-year prison term for shooting into a window of a home in Northeast Washington, U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu announced.
Williams was found guilty by a jury in June 2018 of assault with a dangerous weapon, destruction of property, and related firearms offenses. The verdict followed a trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He was sentenced by the Honorable Judith Bartnoff. Following his prison term, Williams will be placed on three years of supervised release.
According to the government’s evidence, the victim’s brother owed a drug debt to one of Williams’s cousins. On Valentine’s Day evening, Feb. 14, 2016, Williams and his cousin knocked on the victim’s door in the 800 block of Oglethorpe Street NE. The victim answered and immediately yelled at the men to leave. The victim reacted emphatically because the victim heard that these individuals had shot up another house nearby recently.
The victim called 911 immediately upon their departure, predicting that the two men would return to shoot up her house. Within 10 minutes, Williams fulfilled her prediction. He returned with a scarf partially covering his face and fired five shots at the window where the victim and her family member were standing. Williams fled. An investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) led to his arrest in July of 2016.
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Liu commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department. She acknowledged the efforts of those who handled the case at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Assistant U.S. Attorneys Allessandra Stewart, Michael Romano, and Brittany Keil, and Paralegal Specialists Richard Cheatham and Antoinette Sakamsa. Finally, she expressed appreciation for the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lindsey Marcus and Kenya Wells, who prosecuted the matter.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
