Two Area Men Plead Guilty to Charges Related to Murder of Singer Outside Southeast Washington Bar

            WASHINGTON – Michael Jones, 22, of Bladensburg, Md., pled guilty today to a charge of second-degree murder while armed stemming from the slaying of singer Omar Rogers last fall outside a bar and grill in Southeast Washington. A second man, Khalil Davis, 23, of Washington D.C., pled guilty today to a related charge of accessory after the fact.

            The guilty pleas were announced by U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu and Peter Newsham, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            Both men pled guilty in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and are to be sentenced on Oct. 12, 2018, by the Honorable Judith Bartnoff.

            According to a proffer of facts submitted at the plea hearing, the shooting took place at approximately 3:50 a.m. on Oct. 8, 2017. Mr. Rogers, 25, had been at Uniontown Bar and Grill earlier that night, where he had performed with his band, the “AJA Band.”  Jones and Davis also were in the club that night.  Once Mr. Rogers’s band had finished playing and as the club closed, Mr. Rogers went into a rear parking area behind the club to where his vehicle was parked.  While in the parking lot, Mr. Rogers got into a brief verbal altercation with the two defendants.

            After the verbal altercation had ended, Mr. Rogers attempted to pull his vehicle out of its parking spot.  While doing so, he accidentally backed his car into the vehicle that Davis was driving that night, a 2001 red Oldsmobile Intrigue.  The occupants of the Intrigue were the same group of individuals that had just gotten into a verbal altercation with Mr. Rogers, including Jones and Davis. Once that situation seemed to have de-escalated, Mr. Rogers pulled off and parked his vehicle behind Uniontown Bar and Grill, near the 1200 block of W Street SE. 

            As Mr. Rogers sat parked in his vehicle, the other individuals involved in the altercation and accident began approaching his vehicle. Jones walked up to where Mr. Rogers was parked, and pretended to mingle with a group of females while on the phone.  As he did this, he watched Mr. Rogers have a conversation with another individual, who was standing at the driver’s side door of Mr. Rogers’s vehicle.  During that time, Davis pulled up his vehicle immediately behind Mr. Rogers’s vehicle, where he parked, sat, and waited. 

            As soon as the individual who had been talking with Mr. Rogers walked away from the driver’s side door, Jones approached the vehicle. Jones then fired seven shots within close range into the driver’s side window of the vehicle.  In total, Mr. Rogers was shot five times at close range by Jones and died from the injuries.

            Jones then ran to where Davis was waiting and got into the rear passenger seat after Davis unlocked the car for him.  Jones and Davis then fled the scene. Jones was arrested on Oct. 20, 2017, and Davis was arrested five days later. Both have been in custody since their arrests.

            In announcing the pleas, U.S. Attorney Liu and Chief Newsham commended the work of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). They also expressed appreciation for the assistance provided by the District of Columbia Department of Forensic Sciences. They acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura A. Bach, Investigative Analyst Zachary McMenamin, Paralegal Specialist Kelly Blakeney, and Victim/Witness Advocate James Brennan.