SE District man found guilty of
first degree murder while armed

Washington, D.C. – A Southeast District of Columbia man, Gregory E. Napper, was found guilty on Wednesday, September 17, 2008, by a Superior Court jury of First Degree Premeditated Murder while Armed, Possession of a Firearm During a Crime of Violence, and Carrying a Pistol without a License, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today.

Napper, 25, of the 2200 block of Prout Street, SE, is scheduled to be sentenced on November 21, 2008, before the Honorable Herbert B. Dixon, Jr. The defendant faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years of incarceration. The Court ordered that the defendant continue to be held without bond pending his sentencing.

According to the government’s evidence presented at trial, the defendant shot and killed Marvin Leon Carter, 24, just outside the defendant’s home in the 2200 block of Prout Street, SE, Washington, D.C. The murder occurred at approximately 6:15 p.m. on Saturday, September 8, 2007. Some time before the shooting, the decedent and two friends were driving around in two stolen cars when one began to run low on gas. By chance, they decided to park one of the stolen cars in an alleyway next to the defendant’s home on Prout Street. As the young men left one car behind and were driving away from the area in the other, they were questioned by men hanging out in front of the defendant’s home about whether they really lived in the area, etc.

When the decedent later returned with one of his friends to retrieve the stolen car they had parked earlier in the alley, the defendant ran into his home with another person. The decedent and his friend were then driving out of the alley in the car when the defendant ran out of his home with a gun and fired at the decedent, killing him while he was still strapped into his seat belt in the driver’s seat. The car then crashed into the defendant’s own vehicle, which was parked in front of the defendant’s home. The other young man in the car fortunately survived, and later identified the defendant in a photo array as the shooter.

The defendant fled the scene before police arrived. He later came down voluntarily to the homicide office on September 11, 2007, to speak to detectives about his car, which had been towed by police. At first the defendant denied even being present on the scene. The detective told him a number of things about what her investigation had revealed, including that the decedent's car had been parked in the alley before the shooting; that the defendant retrieved a gun from his house before shooting the decedent; and that the car crashed into the defendant’s vehicle. During breaks in the discussion, the detective left the defendant alone in the interview room while the recording equipment was still rolling. After looking at the visible camera pods on the wall, the defendant hid his cell phone in his hat and made two separate phone calls. In the first, the defendant was overheard stating, “Tell that n*****, tell everybody, they hip. These motherf*****s know every [ ]. When I say everything, everything.” In the second call, the defendant was heard worrying about whether a trial witness had spoken to police, and again stated that “they know everything.” The defendant was later arrested at the station, though the telephone calls were not noticed by detectives until they reviewed the recording the following day.

In announcing the verdict, U.S. Attorney Taylor praised the work of Metropolitan Police Department Detectives Gail Russell-Brown and Manuel Gaffney. He also thanked Detectives Milton Norris, Daniel Lewis, Bryan Waid, Brian Kasul, Sergeant Brad Wagner, and Lieutenant Paul Wingate. He also praised the efforts of MPD Officers Tina Ramadhan, Ronald Royster, and Grant Greenwalt. He also thanked Michael Mulderig, Firearms Examiner, and Deputy Medical Examiner, Dr. Carolyn Revercomb. Mr. Taylor also praised the work of employees in his office, including Paralegals Marian Russell and Sandra Lane, Legal Assistants Mary Doster and Doloris Young, and Administrative Supervisor Wanda Queen. He also thanked the outstanding support of the entire litigation services team, who performed a lot of work on the case: Tyrone Bowie, Errol Spears, Timothy Lender, Kimberly Smith, Joseph Calvarese, Janay Jones, and Ron Royal. He also thanked Victim-Witness Advocate Marcey Rinker and Debra Cannon of the Victim-Witness Unit. Finally, he thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Gripkey, who indicted and tried the case.