Former cold case reaches opening statements
Washington goes on trial for Labor Day 2008 shootings
WILMINGTON -- Around 8:30 p.m. on Labor Day 2008, a mystery in the form of a black 1996 Lexus rolled down East 10th Street and smashed into several parked cars.
When police arrived in the 500 block and opened a door, bullet casings came rolling out. In the front seat were two bullet-riddled bodies.
Investigators concluded more than 30 shots had been fired from the back seat into Amin Guy, 31, of Wilmington, who was sitting in the passenger seat, and Francis Leighton, 38, of Newark, who was in the driver's seat. At least eight shots hit Guy and Leighton.
But no one at the scene reported hearing any gunshots. No one saw anybody leaving the car, and all four doors were shut when police arrived.
DNA and fingerprint tests didn't help. "It was a cold case," Deputy Attorney General Karin M. Volker said in court this week.
Then in April 2009, seven months after the car was discovered, a prison informant contacted police with a lead. Then a second informant, then a third.
This gave Wilmington Police Detective John Ciritella a name -- Michael T. Washington -- and an explanation: It was a robbery gone wrong, Volker said. According to an informant, Washington, 24, of Wilmington, was planning on robbing the pair of money and drugs but something went awry and it ended in death, she said.
One of the informants also said that Washington had test-fired the gun used in the shooting at a drug house on Spruce Street. Police were able to confirm that bullets buried in the wall there were fired from the same gun that killed Guy and Leighton.
The informants even produced the name of a witness -- a woman who was sitting on a stoop in the 700 block of 10th St., three blocks away from the crash, according to Volker. The woman had not contacted police, but when police contacted her, she said she saw Washington and a second man -- believed to be Guy -- get into a black car. Seconds later, she said, the car "exploded" with gunfire, raining glass into the woman's hair and causing her to flee, Volker said.
The woman told police Washington visited her house later that night to apologize, but she said she told him she had not seen anything.
So a year and a month after the Sept. 1 shootings, Washington was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted robbery and three weapons charges. Volker, in opening arguments this week, told a New Castle Superior Court jury that the evidence against Washington is beyond a reasonable doubt. If the jury convicts Washington, he faces a possible death penalty.
It is still a mystery as to how the car ended up crashed three blocks away from the scene of the shooting. Attorneys did not -- and perhaps could not -- say if the car just drifted away because it was in gear when the shots were fired or if Leighton managed to drive it for several blocks, perhaps headed for a hospital, before he died.
In their opening statement, attorneys for Washington questioned the evidence, the state's theory of what happened and the source of prosecutors' information.
Attorney Anthony A. Figliola Jr. told the jury that they first have to be convinced about what happened in the car before they can get to the question of who did it. "Was it a robbery? Was it murder? Or was it something else?" Figliola asked. If it was a robbery, Figliola said, then why did both victims still have their money, wallets and cell phones with them? He said drugs were also found in the car, so it would seem nothing was taken. "There is no evidence of a robbery or attempted robbery," he said.
Figliola also said there is evidence that a number of people had access to the semiautomatic handgun that investigators believe was used in the shooting but has not been recovered. And, Figliola said, there is evidence that the gun had been tampered with in an attempt to make it fully automatic and that it could go off without someone pulling the trigger and fire 30 rounds in a matter of seconds. "It could have been the sale of the weapon," Figliola said, and it went off unexpectedly.
But beyond all that, Figliola questioned the source of the prosecutors' information. "They are called jailhouse snitches, people who want to deal," he said, and will keep adding to their story until they get one.
Finally, Figliola promised the jury they will hear from his client. "Michael Washington will take the stand and will tell you he did not do this," he said.
The case is being heard by Judge Charles H. Toliver IV. Testimony is expected to last several weeks.
http://www.delawareonline.com/articl...EWS01/10300338
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