District Man Sentenced to 19 1/2 Years in Prison for Second-Degree Murder While Armed In Northeast Washington

            WASHINGTON – Darius Murphy, 25, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to a period of nineteen-and-a-half years of incarceration for second-degree murder while armed announced Timothy J. Shea, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, and Peter Newsham, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department.

            The defendant pled guilty in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on September 13, 2019. He was sentenced by the Honorable Craig Iscoe. Following his prison term, he will serve five years of supervised release.

            On February 22, 2019, at approximately 7:01 a.m., defendant Murphy fatally stabbed James Wood.  Specifically, Mr. Wood was having a conversation with two men in the parking lot of the Capital Laundromat on Benning Road in Northeast. As Mr. Wood engaged in conversation with these two individuals, the defendant walked up behind him, grabbed him by the neck, and stabbed him several times, killing him.  After stabbing Mr. Wood, the defendant fled on foot.

            In announcing the sentence, United States Attorney Shea and Chief of Police Newsham commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department, including Homicide Branch Detective Thomas O’Donnell. They also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the United States Attorney’s Office, including Assistant United States Attorney George A. Pace, Jr., Paralegal Specialist Kelly Blakeney, and Victim/Witness Advocate Marcey Rinker.