Was it self-defense or murder?
A D.C. jury is now weighing the fate of a man who fatally shot a 13-year-old boy after encountering the teen breaking into cars in his neighborhood last year.
Jason Lewis, 42, is charged with second-degree murder while armed in the shooting death of Karon Blake.
The deliberations in D.C. Superior Court come after hours of closing arguments Thursday — and a day after Lewis took the stand himself, testifying he fired the fatal shots in self-defense.
Prosecutor: ‘You cannot shoot people for property crimes’
Prosecutors have maintained that Lewis, a longtime D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation employee, was the initial aggressor in the encounter and fired a total of three shots in the early morning hours of Jan. 7, 2023 — once at a group of young people inside an idling car in an alley near his home and twice at Blake, who was across the street and began running toward him.
In closing arguments Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Shauna Payyapilly told jurors Lewis saw Blake and the other young people breaking into cars in Lewis’ Northeast D.C. neighborhood, grabbed his gun and went outside to teach them a lesson.
Blake “didn’t deserve to die in someone’s garden, begging for his life,” she told jurors. She added, “You cannot shoot people for property crimes. Full stop.”
In doorbell surveillance video footage submitted as evidence in the case, 13-year-old Karon Blake can be heard shouting, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry. No! I’m a kid! I’m only 12,” as the shots ring out.
When he took the stand Wednesday, Lewis provided his own account of the shooting for the first time, saying he saw the driver of the car in the alley — who has never been identified — first pointing a gun at him and then firing it before he fired his first shot.
“I feared for my safety, feared for my life,” Lewis told jurors.
Prosecutors said there’s no evidence that any other shots were fired that night except those by Lewis.
‘I thought I was getting shot at’
In his testimony, Lewis said he had returned home late from a go-go concert early on the morning of the shooting when he heard a sound that sounded like the gate to his patio courtyard moving. Lewis said he thought somebody was trying to come into his house, so he grabbed his gun from a lockbox and went to investigate.
Lewis’ Smith and Wesson was registered and he had a concealed carry permit at the time, he testified.
Lewis said when he opened his front door, he didn’t see anybody, so he went to the end of his patio. That’s when he noticed a person across the street and said, “Hey,” he testified.
It was at that point, he told the jury, that he saw someone in the car in the alley pointing a gun in his direction. He said he heard someone say, ‘Do it,” before hearing what sounded like a gunshot.
“I thought I was getting shot at, I thought someone was trying to kill me,” he testified.
Lewis also testified he fired a shot at the car. Then he saw someone in his peripheral vision “charging” at him and fired two more shots. He told jurors he was devastated to learn the person he shot was a young boy.
“I spent 20 years of my career working for young people, keeping them safe,” he said.
Payyapilly, the prosecutor, said the teen was trying to escape the gunfire and ran in the wrong direction.
The jury was also shown autopsy photos that the prosecutors say indicate the boy was running away from — not toward Lewis — when he was shot.
Prosecutors: Surveillance footage disputes account
Prosecutors also pointed out the incident was caught on doorbell surveillance camera footage that did not capture any other gunshots besides those fired by Lewis and that Lewis never mentioned seeing a gun or being shot at in his initial statements to police.
When asked why he never told police he saw the driver of the car with a gun or reported being shot at, Lewis testified he was in shock — and still is.
Prosecutors also pointed to the surveillance video evidence they say contradicts Lewis’ version of events. They said from the angle he was standing on the patio, he couldn’t possibly have seen the driver pointing a gun in his direction.
“Everything happened so fast,” Lewis said in response to the prosecutor’s questions during the cross-examination.
Prosecutors also pointed out that Lewis never called 911 before going to investigate the strange sounds he heard. They also showed video from directly after the shooting, when police are on the scene, and Lewis is heard telling his mother on the phone, “I probably just murdered a child.”
Lewis was arrested and charged on Jan. 31, 2023 — about three weeks after the shooting — after police said the surveillance video footage emerged.
Lewis initially told officers he only fired two shots, both at Blake who he said was running toward him as he stood in the gate of his patio courtyard.
In fact, police said surveillance video showed Lewis first fired a shot at the car in the alley, a Kia Sportage. It was only after that first shot was fired that Blake, who was reportedly running toward the Kia, changed direction and began running toward Lewis, police said.
Police have said Blake and two other young people in the Kia Sportage were, in fact, breaking into cars that night, and the Kia Sportage had been reported stolen elsewhere in D.C. hours before the shooting.
Defense attorney to jurors: Don’t second-guess Lewis
Defense attorney Ed Ungvarksy said Lewis, who spent 20 years with the parks department and mentored young people, lived an exemplary life, was peaceful and compassionate and was “not some hothead.”
He said Lewis’ handgun was registered and he had a concealed carry permit to keep his family safe.
“His goal was to protect his family,” the defense attorney said describing why Lewis went to his front porch that morning armed with a gun, adding that it wasn’t the job of jurors to “second-guess his decision to keep his family safe.”
Regarding the lack of video evidence backing up the claim that the driver of the car fired at Lewis first, Ungvarsky told jurors: “If it’s not on a recording, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
Lewis’ trial began Monday.
Prosecutors had subpoenaed Lewis’ wife, who was with him on the night of the shooting, to testify. However, they said in court Thursday, she left her car and her phone at her sister’s house and then took an Uber to an unknown location — in an apparent attempt to avoid testifying. A bench warrant was issued.
The judge decided the matter wouldn’t delay the case and proceeded to closing arguments.
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