A person discovered responsible by a D.C. Superior Courtroom jury on Sept. 24 of aggravated assault whereas armed and 4 further gun associated fees for the Nov. 29, 2023, taking pictures of a transgender feminine intercourse employee in a Northeast D.C. condo constructing is requesting via his lawyer that the decision be overturned and a brand new trial be held.
Courtroom information present that the lawyer representing D.C. resident Jerry Tyree, 46, filed a movement on Sept. 29 requesting a brand new trial, 5 days after the jury handed down its responsible verdict, on grounds that “newly found proof” exhibits the sufferer allegedly perjured herself whereas testifying on the trial about her function as a intercourse employee.
Testimony by key prosecution witnesses on the trial, together with Kayla Fowler, the sufferer, and police investigators, identified that Tyree and Fowler first met on the intersection of Japanese Avenue, N.E. and Foote Avenue, N.E., an space generally known as a gathering place for feminine trans intercourse staff, round 2 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2023,
“After negotiating a worth for oral intercourse, the defendant and the sufferer walked collectively into a close-by condo constructing, the place the sufferer carried out oral intercourse on the defendant,” in line with an announcement launched after the trial by the Workplace of the U.S. Legal professional for D.C.
“The defendant then accused the sufferer of robbing him, and when she denied doing so, the defendant pulled out a small silver handgun and shot the sufferer straight into the penis earlier than leaving the scene,” the assertion says. “Police had been known as by a neighbor, and the sufferer was transported to the hospital, the place she underwent a number of surgical procedures,” it says.
Proof offered by police and prosecutors on the trial confirmed that on Dec. 30, 2023, a month after the taking pictures, police arrested Tyree after discovering him in possession of a gun that was discovered to be the identical handgun used to shoot Fowler.
Tyree testified at his trial that it was Fowler who had the gun and pulled it out after he accused her of stealing about $80 in money from his pants pocket on the time she was performing oral intercourse on him. He advised the jury he tried to seize the gun from Fowler, which led to a wrestle throughout which the gun fired, and Fowler was struck by a single bullet.
Courtroom observers have stated the jury clearly didn’t imagine Tyree’s model of what occurred and appeared to seek out the proof offered by prosecution witnesses, together with Fowler’s testimony, persuasive and prompted them to render a responsible verdict.
Previous to the protection movement for a brand new trial, a sentencing listening to for Tyree had been scheduled for Dec. 13. D.C. Superior Courtroom Choose Errol Arthur, who’s presiding over the case, modified the sentencing listening to to a standing listening to pending the result of the movement calling for a brand new trial.
The Washington Blade couldn’t instantly acquire a replica of the protection movement searching for a brand new trial, which was not obtainable in on-line courtroom information and a courtroom official couldn’t instantly entry the doc and supply it to the Blade. Tyree’s protection lawyer, Sara Kopecki, didn’t reply to a Blade request searching for a replica of her movement.
However a courtroom official was capable of present the Blade with the 21-page movement filed by the lead prosecutor within the case, Assistant U.S. Legal professional Anthony Cocuzza, opposing the protection request for a brand new trial and disputing the protection declare that Fowler perjured herself on the witness stand in the course of the trial.
In line with prosecutor Cucuzza’s movement, the protection movement “patently misquotes the sufferer’s trial testimony” by claiming she testified that she “was now working as a peer educator for a nonprofit group in Baltimore” and “not” working as a prostitute, feigning a “salvation story” to the jury.
Courtroom information present that the nonprofit group she labored for was the LGBTQ supportive social companies group Protected Haven, which has workplaces in Baltimore and D.C. Iya Dammons, Protected Haven’s govt director, advised the Blade Fowler did nicely in the course of the brief time she labored there. Dammons stated Fowler resigned from her job, saying she wished to maneuver to her mom’s dwelling that will have been in North Carolina.
The prosecutor’s movement opposing a brand new trial states that the so-called new proof that the protection movement refers to is a D.C. police report stating that Fowler went to the D.C. police Sixth District station to report that she was accosted by a person who threatened to kill her on Sept. 21 at 5920 Foote St., N.E., on the identical block of the condo constructing the place she was shot.
The protection movement searching for a brand new trial, in line with the prosecutor’s movement in opposition to a brand new trial, claims that Fowler was on the location the place she was accosted whereas participating in prostitution. The protection movement claims this proves Fowler lied on the witness stand when she stated her work at Protected Haven in Baltimore gave her a possibility to “change my life after that incident the place I obtained shot” and implied she was not participating in intercourse work.
The protection movement factors out that she was participating in prostitution whereas Tyree’s trial was nonetheless happening and a short while after she testified on the trial.
In his movement opposing a brand new trial, prosecutor Cocuzza says Fowler by no means said in her trial testimony that she was not participating in intercourse work. “Thus, the protection’s submitting patently misquotes the sufferer’s trial testimony, and the sufferer didn’t lie beneath oath primarily based on this ‘new proof,’” Cocuzza’s movement states.
Cocuzza provides in his movement opposing a brand new trial, “Second, the sufferer’s return to prostitution after the shut of proof on this case wouldn’t ‘most likely’ produce an acquittal, because the jury heard at size and in graphic element in regards to the sufferer’s intercourse work, which was a focus of the trial.” He additional provides in his movement, “The truth that she returned to the career after the shut of proof has completely no impression on our trial.”
Protection lawyer Kopecki didn’t reply to a Blade request for touch upon the prosecutor’s movement opposing a brand new trial.
Courtroom information present that on Dec. 11 Kopecki requested, and prosecutors didn’t oppose, her request for extra time to file a response to the prosecutor’s prolonged movement opposing a brand new trial. The courtroom information present that Choose Arthur granted the request and prolonged the deadline for her to submit her reply to Jan. 3, 2025.
It couldn’t instantly be decided when Choose Arthur plans to difficulty a ruling on whether or not or not a brand new trial must be held.
