Benito Valdez Guilty in 1991 DC Triple Murder

Three bodies dumped in the cold dawn light of a Northeast D.C. park. A drug deal that spiraled into execution-style slaughter. Benito Valdez, 47, of Arlington, Va., is now answerable for it all. A D.C. jury convicted him on multiple counts of first-degree murder while armed, three counts of kidnapping while armed, and one count of sodomy while armed in connection with the April 23, 1991, killings of Curtis Pixley, Keith Simmons, and Samantha Gillard.

The scene at Langdon Park — 1800 block of Franklin Street NE — was quiet before the bloodshed. Pixley, 29, and Simmons, 26, approached Valdez to buy crack cocaine. Gillard, 23, stayed back, watching. But the deal collapsed when Valdez accused Pixley of stealing drugs. Threats followed. When cash didn’t come, Valdez turned his rage on Gillard — raping her at gunpoint before forcing all three to the ground and shooting each in the head.

Execution-style. No remorse. No escape — not this time. The Metropolitan Police Department’s Cold Case Unit cracked the case open decades later. In February 2016, Valdez was finally charged. The prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Laura A. Bach and Lindsey Merikas, laid out a brutal timeline backed by forensic evidence, witness recollections, and physical links tying Valdez to the scene.

Jurors in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia deliberated, then delivered their verdict: guilty on all counts. Valdez showed no reaction. He remains in custody, awaiting sentencing by the Honorable Judith Bartnoff on April 13, 2018. Each murder count carries a potential life sentence. The sodomy and kidnapping charges add further weight to a legacy of violence.

U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu and MPD Chief Peter Newsham hailed the conviction as justice delayed, not denied. They credited the relentless work of MPD’s Cold Case Unit and the U.S. Park Police. Behind the scenes, Paralegal Specialists Stephanie Siegerist, Alesha Matthews, Meridith McGarrity, and Sharon Newman, Criminal Investigator Zachary McMenamin, Litigation Technology Specialist Leif Hickling, and Victim/Witness Advocate Diana Lim played pivotal roles in reconstructing a case from the ashes of time.

Thirty years didn’t erase the truth. The ghosts of Pixley, Simmons, and Gillard finally have a verdict. Valdez’s name is now etched in D.C.’s grim criminal ledger — not as a fugitive from justice, but as a convicted killer facing the full weight of the law.