A Maryland man will spend the rest of his life in prison for the 2017 murder of a visiting artist in Northeast D.C.
El Hadji Toure, 30, formerly of Laurel, was sentenced Friday in the killing of Corrina Mehiel, 34, of North Carolina, who was temporarily living in D.C. while she worked on a show at George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.
Mehiel had been subletting a basement apartment in a Northeast row house. On the morning of March 20, 2017, while Mehiel was packing her belongings, Toure broke into her apartment, sexually assaulted her and stabbed her to death.
According to prosecutors, Toure then stole Mehiel’s car and other belongings, including her debit card. He later used her debit card to withdraw cash at several ATMs in Maryland and Virginia over the next few days.
On the afternoon of March 21, when no one had heard from Mehiel, her co-workers went to her apartment to look for her. They found her body lying face down in her bedroom. She was tied up and had been stabbed multiple times in her side and neck.
Toure was arrested on March 27, 2017 and has been in custody since. He did not know Mehiel before the murder, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Among the evidence presented to the jury was DNA evidence linking Toure to the crime, surveillance footage showing him near the home before the attack and footage of him using Mehiel’s debit card after the murder.
Toure was found guilty on 13 charges earlier this year, including first-degree murder, first-degree sexual assault, kidnapping and burglary.
Toure’s life sentence comes without the possibility of release.
