MPD worked on Noelle Wilson's murder for a year and a half. The USAO mysteriously dropped the case.

A possible "Brady" problem undermining cases

Noelle Wilson was killed on October 11th, 2020, one of 198 homicides in DC that year. MPD’s Homicide Branch worked on the case for a year and a half before arresting Kevon Jackson on June 9th, 2022 and charging him with murder. The case was working through DC Superior Court until January 13th, 2023 when the public defender asked for all Rule 16 and Brady material; evidence the government has that points to other suspects or other exculpatory evidence (like any past misconduct by a police officer involved in the case). Instead of turning over that material, on January 19th, 2023 the US Attorney’s Office (USAO) abruptly dropped the entire case with a Nolle Prosequi action and released Mr. Jackson. A law enforcement source was shocked upon reviewing this case because this is not supposed to happen. None of the most likely explanations are good:

• Hypothesis 1: There was exculpatory Brady evidence that would be so damaging/embarrassing that the USAO preferred to drop a murder case rather than disclose it

  • This could include disclosing past misconduct (like lying in court, withholding evidence) by MPD officers involved in the case, since that would diminish their credibility. The USAO may have preferred to not put that in writing so that other cases those officers were involved couldn’t be challenged/overturned

• Hypothesis 2: The review of the Brady evidence convinced the USAO that they had accused the wrong suspect and we’ve imprisoned the wrong person for 9 months while letting the killer(s) go free

• Hypothesis 3: The USAO discovered some unrelated fatal flaw in the case 9 months after filing it

I found this case while doing data entry for a piece on homicide cases. I was surprised to see that the case status was “Closed” so I looked into the details. Note the filing by the public defender on 1/13/2023 and then the next entry is the USAO dropping the case Nolle Prosequi on 1/19/2023:

DC Superior Court Records: https://eaccess.dccourts.gov/eaccess/home.page.3

Case number: 2022 CF1 003269

MPD’s version of events in this case can be found in the 51 page “Gerstein Affidavit” filed on 6/9/2022 (available through the website above). These are the “facts” as alleged by MPD:

• Noelle Wilson (the victim) travelled to New York City with Kevon (also called Kavon or “Kay”) Jackson (the suspect) and returned to DC late in the evening of October 10th/early morning of October 11th (when she was killed). MPD used cell phone data, license plate reader data and hotel security camera footage to support this.

  • The victim and suspect had a relationship, attested by photos, videos, text messages and call records from the victim’s phone

• The victim was in great distress and feared for her life while returning to DC as shown by her text messages:

• A witness also claimed that the victim was being threatened:

• Noelle Wilson was killed by 9 gunshot wounds and found in an alley. MPD’s ShotSpotter technology detected the gunshots at 2:51AM on October 11th, 2020. MPD’s case ties Mr. Jackson (the suspect) to a black SUV that left the area of the shooting (immediately after the gunshots) that was seen by a witness and security cameras.

  • The suspect rented the vehicle and his cell phone data placed him in the location of the shooting

  • Notably, there were other individuals in the vehicle. If MPD is correct it’s likely that they were at least accessories to the crime and it’s possible the Brady material pointed towards one of them, not the suspect, being the murderer.

• When questioned by MPD detectives, the suspect seems to have lied about knowing the victim:

The affidavit is obviously MPD’s version of events but based on the text messages, photos/videos and witness statements it certainly seems likely that the suspect was at least involved in the murder. However, there does seem to be a lack of direct evidence (in the affidavit at least) implicating the suspect as physically pulling the trigger so perhaps murder was too difficult to prove. The public defender’s Brady request on 1/13/2023 is very comprehensive and asks for specific information about key witnesses and alleged facts of the case. Because the Brady request is so comprehensive, it is impossible to identify which part of the case may have been so problematic that the USAO preferred to drop the case rather than turn over the material.

It’s also interesting that this isn’t the first time this suspect has had a felony dismissed Nolle Prosequi by the USAO. In July 2021 (while under investigation for Noelle’s murder) he was stopped by MPD. MPD allegedly found a gun and illegal drugs on him. He was arrested and charged with Unlawful Possession of a Firearm (and no drug charges). That case (2021 CF2 003828) was dropped by the USAO within a month on August 2nd, 2021. The Gerstein Affidavit testimony from MPD is pretty clear so one possible explanation for the case falling apart is some critical mistake or misconduct by the officers:

In addition, in August 2020 there is a charge of “fugitive from justice” (2020 FUG 006447) for “Failure to Appear - Dangerous Drugs” in Maryland that was dismissed the same day.

To my knowledge, there have been no media stories written about this case since the initial arrest (which was covered by a number of local outlets). When I reviewed this case and the Nolle Prosequi decision with a law enforcement source they described the most likely causes as “a really shady case or bad cop on it.” Since there is a decent amount of evidence that the suspect was at least involved in the murder that raises the likelihood that there were Brady problems in the case. The law enforcement source described this possibility: “If it’s a true Brady problem you’re talking about likely a bad cop on the force tanking a case.” The broader policy concern is that this may just be an extreme instance of a larger problem.

My posts about past USAO actions have attracted a number of comments alleging that MPD does have a “Brady problem” like this note: “Lots of officers are on the Brady List they can’t testify in court.” The International Association of Chiefs of Police defines the Brady list as: “A Giglio or Brady list is a list compiled usually by a prosecutor's office or a police department containing the names and details of law enforcement officers who have had sustained incidents of untruthfulness, criminal convictions, candor issues, or some other type of issue placing their credibility into question.” How many MPD officers are on the Brady list isn’t something I can prove with publicly available data but it is something that the Mayor and DC Council could investigate. If there are MPD officers who lack credibility in court due to past misconduct then there should be a discussion of what MPD is doing about them. Vice News reported on a lawsuit by Property of the People to gain access to MPD’s Brady list but to my knowledge the list remains secret. This is a serious concern since it could be undermining MPD’s ability to make cases stick and the underlying misconduct may mean that innocent people have been convicted. It’s also relevant that the Council is debating retention incentives for MPD officers; should officers on the Brady list be eligible? Are those the kinds of officers we want? For the sake of Noelle Wilson’s family I hope that our law enforcement and government leaders take this issue seriously.