Terence D. Sutton Jr., 2nd-Degree Murder, Washington DC 2020

WASHINGTON — Terence D. Sutton Jr., 40, a Fourth District police officer, was sentenced to 66 months in prison and Andrew Zabavsky, 56, an MPD lieutenant, was sentenced to 48 months in prison, in connection with an unauthorized police pursuit that ended in a collision on Oct. 23, 2020, that caused the death of Karon Hylton-Brown, 20, in Northwest Washington D.C.

The sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge David Geist of the Washington Field Office. Sutton was found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by a unanimous federal jury on December 21, 2022, following a nine-week trial, of second-degree murder, conspiracy to obstruct, and obstruction of justice. The same jury found Zabavsky guilty of conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of justice.

In addition to the prison terms, U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman ordered each defendant to serve three years of supervised release. “The jury in this case found the defendants guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for their roles in the murder of Karon Hylton Brown and a related cover up, affirming that what happened here was a serious crime,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves.

Public safety requires public trust. Crimes like this erode that trust and are a disservice to the community and the thousands of officers who work incredibly hard, within the bounds of the Constitution, to keep us safe.”

The jury found that Sutton caused Mr. Hylton-Brown’s death by driving a police vehicle in conscious disregard for an extreme risk of death or serious bodily injury to Mr. Hylton-Brown. The jury further found that Sutton and Zabavsky conspired to hide from MPD officials the circumstances of the traffic crash leading to Mr. Hylton-Brown’s death, thereby obstructing justice.

The chase began when officers observed Mr. Hylton-Brown, 20, driving a moped, helmetless, on a sidewalk in the Brightwood Park area of Northwest Washington. Mr. Hylton-Brown, who was unarmed, ignored Sutton’s attempt to stop him and drove off. Sutton then began chasing Mr. Hylton-Brown on neighborhood streets for minutes, over more than 10 blocks, at unreasonable speeds, and at one point proceeding the wrong way up a one-way street.

When Mr. Hylton-Brown reached the street at the mouth of the alley, he was struck by an uninvolved oncoming motorist. As Mr. Hylton-Brown lay unconscious in the street in a pool of his own blood, Sutton and Zabavsky, agreed to cover up what Sutton had done to prevent any further investigation of the incident.

Neither Sutton, as the lead officer at the scene, nor Zabavsky, the ranking MPD official, preserved the crash scene for investigators; they allowed the driver of the car that struck Hylton-Brown to leave the scene within 20 minutes of the crash. They then turned off their own body worn cameras, conferred privately, and left. Zabavsky designated no other MPD official to supervise the scene upon his own departure.

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