District Man Indicted on Enhanced Second-Degree Theft for Theft from a Residence and a Church in DC

            WASHINGTON –Sterling McLaughlin, 30, of Washington, D.C., was indicted on Wednesday, February 14, 2024, by a grand jury in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on one count of felony second-degree theft stemming from events occurring on October 20, 2023, U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Chief Pamela Smith, of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) announced.

            Sterling is to be arraigned on February 22, 2024, at a hearing before a Superior Court judge.

            According to the government’s evidence, on October 20, 2023, and January 3, 2024, Sterling took packages from two locations in the Capitol Hill area, one from a residential home and the other from church. Sterling was later located and arrested after investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department.  

            Sterling has two or more prior theft convictions, though not from the same occasion, and therefore is subject to enhanced penalties for his alleged theft, including a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in jail for each count of theft for which he is indicted.

            Since September 1, 2023, including the aforementioned case, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has indicted 24 cases involving a felony second-degree theft charge based on a defendant’s two or more prior theft convictions, not from the same occasion.

            This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. It is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Chorong Song.

            An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of criminal laws and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.