Conviction in Shooting Death of 17-year-old Youth

Jury Convicts Northeast Man of First Degree Murder
for Shooting Death of 17-year-old Youth

Antonio R. Harvey, 18, also known as “Head,” of the 1200 block of
18 Street, NE, was found guilty today by a Superior th Court jury of First Degree Murder while Armed and seven related shooting charges for the January 8, 2008, murder of Julian Agurs in the 1300 block of Rhode Island Avenue, NE, an area known as the Saratoga neighborhood, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips. Judge Michael L. Rankin of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia presided over the trial, and set a sentencing date for March 12, 2010. At sentencing, the defendant faces a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison.

Evidence presented at trial established that on January 8, 2008, Harvey was driving his car in the 1300 block of Rhode Island Avenue, NE, when he rolled down his window and started cursing and yelling at a group of eight youths from the Saratoga neighborhood. The decedent, Julian Agurs, who was celebrating his 17th birthday with friends, yelled back, cursing and saying, among other things, “it’s my birthday.” Harvey and one other person in the car responded with a fusillade of shots, one of which passed through Agurs heart as he ran from the scene. Two other youths, a thirteen-year-old boy and a sixteen-year-old boy, suffered gunshot wounds as well.

The government also established at trial that Harvey had previously shot at one of the boys in the crowd on October 15, 2007, and had wounded that youth in the foot. The jury found Harvey guilty for this shooting, as well as for shooting at the youths on January 8, 2008.

In announcing the verdict, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillips commended the dedicated and
outstanding work of MPD Homicide Detective Carol Queen, who was the lead detective,
Homicide Detectives Tony Patterson and Jamell G. Stallings, Fifth District Officers Kate Wiedefeld and Jame Chatmon, Fifth District Detective Anthony Commodore, Sixth District Detective Joseph Newel, MPD Mobile Crime Technician J.D. Smith, Crime Scene Search Officer Rodney Langford, K-9 Branch Officer Kelvin Dyson, and Emergency Response Technician Sergeant Raymond Chambers. He further praised the outstanding efforts of U.S. Attorney’s Office Paralegal Specialist Ethel Gregory, Litigation Technology Unit Specialist Jeanie Latimore-Brown, Victim Witness Specialists Marcia Rinker and Laverne Forrest, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Foster, who investigated the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ambrosino, who assisted with forensic issues in the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Saybolt who prosecuted the case at trial.