Tavon Pinkney Pleads Guilty to Second-Degree Murder

Tavon Pinkney, a 20-year-old Washington DC man, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with a noontime robbery in Northeast Washington. Pinkney, along with co-defendants William Bass and Kalif Brown, was involved in the shooting death of 25-year-old Rico Myers on February 16, 2015.

According to prosecutors, Pinkney, Bass, and Brown were driven to the 300 block of 61st Street NE for a PCP transaction with Myers and his friend. Once there, the defendants entered an alley and Pinkney pulled a gun, demanding Myers’s possessions. Bass began going through Myers’s pockets, while Brown robbed Myers’s friend.

Myers began struggling to defend himself, and Pinkney then shot him four times. The defendants ran to the waiting car on 61st Street NE, which then drove off. Myers ran out of the alley and collapsed on a sidewalk in the 300 block of 61st Street NE. He was taken to a hospital, where all efforts to save his life were unsuccessful.

An autopsy performed by the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death to be homicide. In announcing the guilty pleas, U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips commended the work of the detectives of the Criminal Investigations Division, Homicide Branch, crime scene officers, and the Sixth Police District of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Pinkney pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree murder while armed and faces a sentence of 17 years in prison. Bass pleaded guilty to assault with intent to rob while armed, and his plea calls for a sentence consistent with the District of Columbia Voluntary Sentencing Guidelines. Brown pleaded guilty to robbery and faces five years in prison. All three defendants will be sentenced by the Honorable Robert E. Morin on July 8, 2016.

U.S. Attorney Phillips also expressed appreciation for the work of the D.C. Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services and the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. He acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Victim/Witness Advocate Diana Lim, Victim/Witness Security Specialist M. Laverne Forrest, and Paralegal Specialist Lashone Samuels. Finally, he praised the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Spence, who investigated and prosecuted the case.