District Man Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison for Robbery and Obstruction of Justice

            WASHINGTON – Joseph N. Davenport, 47, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to nine years in prison on charges of robbery and obstruction of justice for beating and robbing an acquaintance at her apartment, and then trying to get his girlfriend to lie about his whereabouts at the time of the attack, U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu announced. 

            Davenport pled guilty in March 2017, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.  The plea, which was contingent upon the Court’s approval, called for an agreed-upon sentence of nine years in prison. The Honorable Zoe Bush accepted the plea and sentenced the defendant accordingly. Following his prison term, Davenport will be on three years of supervised release.

            According to the government’s evidence, in the early morning hours of May 1, 2014, Davenport went to the Southeast Washington apartment of a female acquaintance who lived in the same complex as Davenport’s then-girlfriend. He told the woman that his girlfriend had put him out of her apartment and that he needed a place to stay. He asked whether he could spend the night sleeping on the victim’s couch.  When the victim told Davenport “no,” he became enraged, punched her in the face, and knocked her onto a glass-topped table, which shattered as she fell through it.  He then grabbed her debit card and other property and fled.

            An arrest warrant was issued and Davenport was arrested on May 6, 2014.  A few days later, he called his then-girlfriend from the District of Columbia Jail, where all such calls are recorded.  During that call, Davenport tried to get his girlfriend to create a false alibi for him for the time during which he was beating and robbing the other woman.  She refused to do so.  Prosecutors subpoenaed Davenport’s jail calls and this call became the basis of the obstruction of justice charge to which Davenport pleaded.

            In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Liu praised the work of officers from the Seventh District of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and from a joint task force comprised of members of the MPD and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). She also expressed appreciation for the work of the Special Police Officers from the apartment complex, who assisted in the investigation of the case.

            She acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Colleen M. Kennedy, Special Counsel for Mental Health Litigation; Assistant U.S. Attorney Silvia Gonzalez Roman; Michael Ambrosino, Special Counsel for DNA and Forensic Evidence Litigation; Paralegal Specialists D’Yvonne Key, Donhue Troy Griffith and Brenda C. Williams; Victim/Witness Advocate Lezlie Richardson; Criminal Investigators Melissa Matthews and Nelson Rhone; Investigative Analysts Shannon Alexis, William Hamann, and Sharon Johnson, and Information Technology Specialist Aneela Bhatia. Finally, U.S. Attorney Liu commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark Aziz, Kenechukwu Okocha and Peter V. Taylor, who investigated and prosecuted this case.