WASHINGTON - A 28-year-old Charles County, Maryland man, Jonathan Mack, was found guilty late yesterday by a Superior Court jury of first degree murder while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, and possession of a prohibited weapon (sawed-off shotgun) for the November 2, 2006 murder of his friend, James Burton, in front of 51 Quincy Place, NW, announced U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor. Mack, of Riverside Run Drive in Indian Head, Maryland, will be sentenced on January 9, 2009, before the Honorable Robert I. Richter. Mack faces a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison.

The government's evidence established that on November 2, 2006, Mack drove his friend, James Burton, and two female associates from Charles County, Maryland into Washington, D.C. Along the way, Mack, who was in possession of a sawed off shotgun and ammunition, began to demonstrate bizarre and erratic behavior, culminating in the murder of his friend, after a brief physical altercation with him in an alley near Quincy Place, NW.

Mr. Burton's body was transported to the D.C. Medical Examiner's Office, where an autopsy was performed by Sarah M. Colvin, MD, who determined that the cause of death was a gunshot wound through the neck, with perforation of the spinal cord. Dr. Colvin ruled the manner of death a homicide.

In announcing the verdict, U.S. Attorney Taylor commended several officers of the Metropolitan Police Department, including lead Detectives Michael F. Murphy, Sean O. Caine, Edward Truesdale, Anthony Paci, Dwayne Partman, and Robert Arrington, Sergeant John P. Johnson, Mobile Crime Lab Technicians Kevin Jeter, Kemper Agee, James Savage, Keith Slaughter, Brenda Floyd, Gerald Wills, and Charles Graham, Officers Daniel Gillespie, Travis Weston, and Bryant Collins, Latent Fingerprint Examiner Gloria Graves, Firearms Examiner Robert Freese, Prince George's County, Maryland Police Department Corporal George H. Ross, Jr., and Deputy Medical Examiner Sarah M. Colvin, MD. Lastly, he thanked Larry Grasso of the Intelligence Section of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Paralegals Ethel Noble and Phil Aronson, Legal Assistants Mary Doster and Debra Joyner, Victim Witness Advocate Marcia Rinker, and Litigation Services Technicians Jeanie Latimore-Brown, Timothy Linder, Thomas "Ron" Royal, Kimberly Smith, and Tyrone Bowie, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Haines, who assisted with the grand jury investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. Feitel, who further investigated, indicted and tried the case.