WASHINGTON – Joseph N. Davenport, 45, of Washington, D.C., has pled guilty to charges of robbery and obstruction of justice for beating and robbing an acquaintance at her apartment, and then trying to get his girlfriend to lie about his whereabouts at the time of the attack, U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips announced today.
The plea took place on March 6, 2017, before the Honorable Zoe Bush in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The plea, which is contingent upon the Court’s approval, calls for an agreed-upon sentence of nine years in prison. Judge Bush scheduled a hearing for June 2, 2017, to determine whether the plea and sentence will be accepted.
According to the government’s evidence, in the early morning hours of May 1, 2014, Davenport went to the Southeast Washington apartment of a female acquaintance who lived in the same complex as Davenport’s then-girlfriend. He told the woman that his girlfriend had put him out of her apartment and that he needed a place to stay. He asked whether he could spend the night sleeping on the victim’s couch. When the victim told Davenport “no,” he became enraged, punched her in the face, and knocked her onto a glass-topped table, which shattered as she fell through it. He then grabbed her debit card and other property and fled.
An arrest warrant was issued and Davenport was arrested on May 6, 2014. A few days later, he called his then-girlfriend from the District of Columbia Jail, where all such calls are recorded. During that call, Davenport tried to get his girlfriend to create a false alibi for him for the time during which he was beating and robbing the other woman. She refused to do so. Prosecutors subpoenaed Davenport’s jail calls and this call became the basis of the obstruction of justice charge to which Davenport pleaded.
In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Phillips praised the work of officers from the Seventh District of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and from a joint task force comprised of members of the MPD and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He also expressed appreciation for the work of the Special Police Officers from the apartment complex, who assisted in the investigation of the case.
He acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Colleen M. Kennedy, Special Counsel for Mental Health Litigation; Assistant U.S. Attorney Silvia Gonzalez Roman, of the Office’s Special Proceedings Division; Michael Ambrosino, Special Counsel for DNA and Forensic Evidence Litigation; Paralegal Specialists D’Yvonne Key, Donhue Troy Griffith and Brenda C. Williams; Victim/Witness Advocate Lezlie Richardson; Criminal Investigators Melissa Matthews and Nelson Rhone; Investigative Analysts Shannon Alexis, William Hamann, and Sharon Johnson; Information Technology Specialist Aneela Bhatia, and Legal Intern Emma McArthur. Finally, U.S. Attorney Phillips commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark Aziz, Kenechukwu Okocha and Peter V. Taylor, who investigated and prosecuted this case.