Southeast District man sentenced
for 2004 Thanksgiving killing

Washington, D.C. – A Southeast District of Columbia man, Tracy Van Dyke, has been sentenced for killing a man during the late evening hours following a Thanksgiving dinner the two shared with others in 2004, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today. Van Dyke was found guilty in May 2008 by a Superior Court jury of Voluntary Manslaughter while Armed.

Van Dyke, 44, of the 5300 block of B Street, SE, Washington, D.C., was sentenced today before the Honorable John Mott to 150 months (12 ½ years) in prison. The Court also imposed 5 years of supervised release after he has served his sentence.

According to the government’s evidence presented at trial, the homicide occurred in the defendant’s former residence at 4233 Blaine Street, NE, Washington, D.C. (PSA 603), late in the evening hours on Thanksgiving, November 25, 2004. The decedent, Darnell Baldwin, 44, came over with his girlfriend to have Thanksgiving dinner with the defendant and the defendant’s wife. At some point, the conversation became heated, and the decedent was asked to leave the house. He did so and returned twice, the last time offering an apology.

At that point, an altercation began between the two men, and the decedent and the defendant ended up wrestling on the kitchen floor. The defendant, who was taller and heavier than the decedent, managed to get on top of the decedent. At that point, the defendant’s wife was actually concerned for the decedent – not her husband – and she tried to call 911. The defendant yelled at her not to call the police, and subsequently used a glass Smirnoff bottle to hit the decedent about the face. The bottle broke, and the defendant continued using the now-sharpened bottle to make a series of jabbing motions about the decedent’s body, primarily on the left side of his face.

The defendant eventually stopped and called 911 after the decedent’s body was still. As a result of the blood loss from the large number of relatively superficial wounds – no arteries were cut – the decedent went into cardiac arrest. Paramedics were unable to revive him, and the decedent was transported to Prince George's Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead by a member of the hospital staff just after midnight, at 12:10 a.m., on November 26, 2004. The body of Darnell Baldwin was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland. An autopsy determined that the cause of death was the multiple blunt and sharp force injuries to his head and neck, and that the manner of death was a homicide. Before he was transported to the police station, police officers heard the defendant state that he had “lost it.”

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor praised the work of Metropolitan Police Department Detectives Michael Pavero, Todd Amis, George Blackwell, and Sabrina White. He also commended the work of Metropolitan Police Department Officers Curtis Lancaster, Timothy Francis, David Jarboe, and Brenda Floyd. He also expressed appreciation for the work of Dr. Ana Rubio of the Medical Examiner’s Office for the State of Maryland, and for the work of Sergeant Jane Wallace with the D.C. Fire and EMS Department. Mr. Taylor additionally praised the work of Legal Assistant Mary Doster, Paralegals Marian Russell and Sandra Lane, and Paralegal Supervisor Wanda Queen; Kimberly Smith of Litigation Services; Librarian Katie Zeigler; and Victim-Witness Advocates Marcey Rinker and Yvonne Bryant; and Debra Cannon of the Victim-Witness Unit. Mr. Taylor also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Wanda Dixon and Michelle Jackson, who investigated and indicted the case, and Steven Snyder, who commendably helped out on the opening day of trial with numerous critical matters. Finally, he thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Gripkey, who tried the case and handled the sentencing.