District Man Sentenced To 12-Year Prison Term For Shooting Man Who Asked Him To Leave His PorchDefendant Was Trespassing With A Group That Was Smoking, Drinking And Gambling

     WASHINGTON – Anthony Cole, 27, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to 12 years in prison for shooting a man on the front porch of the victim’s home in Southeast Washington, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.

     Cole was found guilty by a jury in June 2013 of aggravated assault while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon, and unlawful possession of a firearm. The verdict followed a trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Cole was sentenced by the Honorable Stuart G. Nash. Upon his release from prison, Cole will be placed on five years of supervised release.

     According to the government’s evidence, on July 26, 2012, at about 11:45 p.m., Cole and a group of friends were smoking, drinking and gambling on the victim’s front porch on Langston Place SE, in the Woodland Terrace housing complex. The victim had never given Cole permission to enter the porch, and had been inside the house with his children, who were bothered by the noise and smoke. The victim asked Cole and his friends to leave, but they refused. Instead, Cole began menacing the victim, firing a gun twice before aiming a third shot at the victim’s leg. The bullet smashed the victim’s thigh bone into pieces.

     Cole fled the scene to evade police detection. He was arrested months later.

     In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). He also acknowledged the efforts of the U.S. Marshals Service, which located the defendant after a warrant was issued for his arrest. In addition, he commended the work of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Paralegal Specialists Lynette Briggs and Richard Cheatham; Litigation Technology Specialists Thomas (Ron) Royal, Josh Ellen, and William Henderson; James Brennan, Michael Hailey, and M. Laverne Forrest, all of the Victim Witness Assistance Unit; Child Forensic Interviewer Tracy Owusu, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Demian S. Ahn, who investigated and prosecuted the case.