WASHINGTON - A Southeast District of Columbia man, Daniel Thomas, was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for his role in a murder during a robbery attempt in 2004, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced.

Thomas, 31, of the 500 block of Lebaum Street, SE, Washington, D.C., was sentenced by the Honorable Neal E. Kravitz after having pled guilty in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to Second Degree Murder while Armed in November 2008.

At his plea hearing, the defendant admitted that on September 3, 2004, he conspired with two other men to commit an armed robbery of unknown individuals whom the defendant and his co-conspirators believed had robbed their associates earlier that same evening. The defendant and his two co-conspirators then drove around Southeast Washington, D.C., looking for the individuals they believed had committed the earlier robbery, when they encountered the decedent, Terrence Britt, along with two other individuals walking in the 400 block of Lebaum Street, SE (PSA 702).

Assuming that the three men were the individuals who had robbed their associates, the defendant's two co-conspirators exited the vehicle and ordered the victim and his friends to stop. When the victim and his two friends tried to flee the area, one of the co-conspirators fired a gun at the decedent, striking him twice. The decedent's two friends were able to escape the area unharmed. The defendant admitted that he was aware that his co-conspirators were armed, and that he was supposed to rob the victims while his co-conspirators held the victims at gunpoint. After the shooting, the defendant drove himself and his co-conspirators away from the scene.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor praised the work of Metropolitan Police Department Detectives Jacqueline Middleton and Jed Worrell. He also praised the efforts of Sergeant Chris Kauffman and MPD Officers Richard S. Griffin and Ridley Durham, Jr. Mr. Taylor also praised the work of employees in his office, including paralegal Marian Russell, legal assistant Mary Doster, and administrative supervisor Wanda Queen. He also thanked Victim-Witness Advocate Marcey Rinker of the Victim-Witness Unit. Finally, he thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven B. Wasserman, who indicted and prosecuted the case.