A midnight walk for a drink ended in blood on Eaton Place SE in 2014 — and on Monday, Gregory Green, 28, of Washington, D.C., was slammed with a 42½-year prison sentence for the cold execution of Derrick Williams. The conviction, handed down after a jury trial in October 2016, ties Green to the armed robbery and first-degree felony murder of the 35-year-old victim just steps from his own home.
Shortly after midnight on March 29, 2014, Williams returned from work and spoke briefly with his girlfriend before stepping out to buy a beverage. Minutes later, gunshots cracked through the quiet block of the 1200th street of Eaton Place SE. A witness saw Green and another man standing over Williams’s body. Green, dressed head to toe in black, rifled through the victim’s front pockets, flipped the body, and searched the back pockets — all while Williams lay dead from a single, fatal head wound.
Arrested just three days later on April 2, 2014, Green became the sole individual charged in the killing. No co-defendants were ever taken into custody. The prosecution’s case, built through eyewitness testimony, forensic work, and digital analysis, left jurors unconvinced by any claim of innocence. In the end, the Honorable Milton C. Lee handed down the 42½-year sentence, followed by five years of supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips and MPD Interim Chief Peter Newsham made the sentencing announcement with sharp emphasis on justice served. “This was a brazen, violent act that shattered a family and terrorized a neighborhood,” Phillips stated. “The sentence reflects the gravity of the crime and our commitment to holding violent offenders accountable.”
Investigators from the Metropolitan Police Department led the probe, with critical support from the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team, which helped trace key movements and communications. The U.S. Attorney’s Office credited a deep bench of personnel, including paralegals, victim advocates, forensic specialists, and criminal investigators, whose relentless work kept the case moving through a two-year gap between arrest and trial.
Among those recognized: Paralegal Specialists Lashone Samuels, Zekiah Wright, and Benjamin Kagan-Guthrie; Victim/Witness Advocates Marcia Rinker and Tonya Jones; Criminal Investigator Mark Crawford; and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adrienne Dedjinou and Charles Willoughby, Jr., who prosecuted the case. Their combined efforts ensured that a man who walked free for years after stealing a life would now spend most of his own behind bars.
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Key Facts
- State: Washington DC
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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