Gary Emerling, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – The fate of five suspects on trial for events surrounding the death of 13-year-old Alonzo Robinson in the District’s Trinidad neighborhood is now in the hands of a Superior Court jury.
Antonio McAllister and twin brothers Joshua and Christian Benton are affiliated with the Kenilworth neighborhood and face first-degree murder and other charges stemming from a series of shootings in Trinidad in 2008. Robinson — in town to visit his ailing great-grandmother — was gunned down during a night of violence July 19, while several others were hurt, including a college student who suffered extensive injuries.
The shootings led to the second implementation of controversial police checkpoints in Trinidad. Two other suspects on trial — William McCorkle and Marcus Brown — are affiliated with that neighborhood and face charges stemming from an alleged attempt to retaliate against the Kenilworth defendants the same night.
Each defendant in the case faces between 30 years and life in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the jury of eight women and four men were given the case at about 4:15 p.m. Friday following about a month-long trial. They are expected to resume deliberations Monday morning.
During closing arguments on Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Lyons told jurors the shootings allegedly committed by the Kenilworth defendants were part of a premeditated plan for revenge.
“They planned it, they thought about it and they did it,” Lyons said.
Prosecutors say the shootings stemmed from a fight between members of the neighborhood groups at a Waldorf, Md., club called the Icon. After McAllister and the Bentons were ejected from the club, they allegedly went back to Kenilworth to arm themselves and then drove in a gold Dodge Intrepid to Trinidad.
Lyons Thursday reiterated the government’s contention that members of the group — along with a cooperating witness, Kenneth Williams — severely wounded college student Rishad General in one shooting, murdered Alonzo Robinson in a separate spray of gunfire and wounded another person, Antonio Dickerson, before leaving Trinidad.
General’s injuries have required 16 surgeries, Lyons said. Robinson was hit five times by bullets — four of which ricocheted before striking him.
“The fatal shot hits him in the abdomen,” Lyons described to the jury. “He falls, bleeds to death.”
After Dickerson was shot, prosecutors say a Trinidad witness named Jeffrey Tate believes he saw McAllister — whom he recognized from the club — leaving in the car. Brown allegedly helped provide a gun for the Trinidad group to use in retaliation, and prosecutors say McCorkle and two others drove to Kenilworth and opened fire on a group of people in the neighborhood.
Prosecutors say McAllister had returned to Kenilworth by then and fired back, and a casing left from those shots matched shots fired in Trinidad.
The government’s evidence includes surveillance video of an alley in Kenilworth showing a car similar to an Intrepid pulling in shortly after the shootings, as well as video showing a person resembling McAllister getting into the car after the retaliatory shooting by the Trinidad group.
But much of the trial has centered around he-said-she-said testimony and has shown a tangled web of friendships and associations within the Kenilworth and Trinidad neighborhoods. The weight of the government’s case against the Kenilworth defendants appears to rest largely on the credibility to the jury of Williams, who testified he was with the suspects and participated in the Trinidad shootings.
During her closing argument, Heather Pinckney — attorney for Joshua Benton — stressed how Williams told police different versions of the shootings narrative and pointed out discrepancies in his testimony. Williams, for example, says the altercation that led to the shootings took place at a different club in Maryland, and not at the Icon.
Williams also has a history of extensive drug use and mental health problems.
“How can you believe what he is telling you about what happened when he is not even in the same place … ?” Pinckney said to the jury. “He is not to be believed, he is not to be trusted.”
Paul Riley, counsel for Christian Benton, also spent much of his closing argument attacking Williams’ credibility. He said his client had arranged to be home in Southeast when the shootings occurred, and noted Williams admittedly was intoxicated on PCP during the crimes.
“Maybe he didn’t know where he was,” Riley told the jury. “I’m gonna argue he didn’t know who he was with.”
McAllister attorney Frances D’Antuono struck a similar theme when the trial resumed Friday. She said her client attended a surprise birthday party in Kenilworth the night of the shootings, cited a witness who said McAllister was not present during the alleged retaliatory shooting involving the Trinidad defendants, and accused Williams of playing “let’s make a deal” with the government.
Williams has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and other charges as part of a plea agreement in the case.
“Kenneth Williams knows that Mr. McAllister is a chip in this poker game,” D’Antuono said.
D’Antuono also said a description of a person involved in the fight at the club given by witness Jeffery Tuckson did not match McAllister, and Tate — who said he saw the Intrepid leaving Trinidad after the shootings — initially told a grand jury the car was a Concorde.
Tuckson, meanwhile, plays a similar role to Williams for the prosecution when it comes to the case against Brown and McCorkle. He has an agreement with the government and also testified during the trial — prosecutors say he went to Kenilworth along with McCorkle and another person to retaliate for the shooting of Dickerson.
Patricia Newton, attorney for Brown — who prosecutors said helped the Trinidad group obtain a gun — said Tuckson involved her client because he was upset with Brown for not doing anything to retaliate for Dickerson’s shooting. She said Tuckson “wouldn’t know the truth if it jumped up and bit him in the behind.”
Arthur Ago, representing McCorkle, played a recording for the jury during his closing argument of Tuckson seeking a deal from police on another charge for providing information, and noted that Tuckson and Dickerson, who was shot in Trinidad, were extremely close.
Ago also said a witness description of a shooter in the retaliatory incident in Kenilworth matched Tuckson, not McCorkle, and ballistic evidence from Kenilworth undermined Tuckson’s assertion that McCorkle had a 9 mm during the shooting.
“He became Tony Dickerson’s avenger,” Ago said of Tuckson.
During a final rebuttal for the government, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff said alibis for the Benton brothers and McAllister did not account for the time period prior to the Trinidad shootings, and the jury “had to hear from someone in each of those cars,” referring to Williams and Tuckson.
She also said defense attorneys had asked jurors to believe Williams when he had confessed to other crimes and damaged his character, but to discount him when it comes to the Trinidad shootings.
“‘Believe him so we can ask you not to believe him,'” Kerkhoff said. “They don’t get it both ways.”
Prosecutors and defense attorneys also have sparred over alleged statements made by the Benton brothers to Williams while all three were in custody, in which Christian Benton reportedly told Williams “I wasn’t going to snitch on you,” and, “They’ve got no case without you.”
The defense has called guards as witnesses who have said the conversations could not have taken place, according to Pinckney. On Thursday, Lyons told the jury that what Benton allegedly said wasn’t as important as what he allegedly didn’t say.
“What he doesn’t say is, ‘Why are you doing this? I wasn’t there,'” Lyons said.
(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
