A man in Prince George’s County, Maryland, was sentenced to 18 years in prison Friday for the 2022 stabbing death of a minister at a Northwest D.C. hookah bar.
Michael Dolson, 37, of Upper Marlboro, pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter while armed in March.
In addition to the prison term, D.C. Superior Court Judge Rainey Brandt sentenced Dolson to five years of supervised release.
Prosecutors said Dolson and a “companion” were at the Cloud Lounge at 1919 Ninth St. NW in March 2022, seated away from other customers in the back of the venue. That’s when Kenneth Thomas, Jr., a 42-year-old Howard University School of Divinity graduate and licensed minister from Silver Spring, asked to join the couple.
According to prosecutors, Thomas shared the table with the couple for an hour and a half. As the night went on, Dolson grew annoyed with Thomas and gestured for him to leave his seat and go somewhere else.
When Thomas refused to leave the table, Dolson slashed him in the face with a knife he had brought into the nightclub. Thomas then stood up, at which point Dolson stabbed him in the chest.
Dolson and his companion left the club after the attack. Thomas was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.
Dolson was arrested just under a month later, on April 5, 2022. He has been in police custody since.
