 |
|
U.S. Department of Justice PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
|
|
D.C. Superior Court Jury Finds Capitol Heights Man Guilty of 2003 First-Degree Premeditated Murder of his Wife
Washington, D.C. - A 40-year-old man Capitol Heights, Maryland man, Bryan Keith Wilson, Sr., has been found guilty of murdering his wife in December 2003, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today.
After a week-long trial, a D.C. Superior Court jury today found Wilson, formerly of the 3600 block of Keyturn Drive, Capitol Heights, MD, guilty of first-degree murder while armed, and related firearms, in connection with the December 13, 2003, murder of his wife, Inga Marsheta Wilson. The statutory maximum for first-degree murder while armed is 60 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison. Wilson also faces up to 22 additional years of incarceration for the firearms charges. Sentencing is scheduled to take place before the Honorable Erik P. Christian on July 27, 2007.
The government’s evidence at trial showed that, at approximately 2:41 p.m. on Saturday, December 13, 2003, Inga Wilson was found dead, shot four times in the left side of her head, in her and her husband’s green Ford Expedition. Ms. Wilson’s body was seat-belted in the front passenger seat. The Expedition was parked on the street in front of 3004 Adams Street, NE, in Washington, D.C., approximately 14 miles from the defendant and Ms. Wilson’s home address, on Fairway Manor Drive, in Upper Marlboro, MD.
Earlier that same day, at approximately 3:49 a.m., the defendant had called 911 from the couple’s Upper Marlboro home to report his wife missing. The defendant claimed that he last saw his wife alive around 11:00 p.m. on Friday, December 12, 2003, when she left their home in Upper Marlboro, MD, for a nearby convenience store to buy some candy. The defendant claimed that he fell asleep after his wife left, and that when he woke up around 12:30 or 1:00 a.m., she had not yet come home. He claimed that he then drove around his neighborhood and to the nearby convenience stores in an effort to locate her. His attempts unsuccessful, the defendant claimed that he then called the police.
During the subsequent investigation, it was determined that the defendant, a letter carrier employed by the U.S. Postal Service in Hyattsville, MD, had been involved in an extra-marital affair with another postal employee that lasted from approximately June to September 2003. After the relationship ended, the defendant tried to win his ex-girlfriend back. He repeatedly told her that he was unhappy in his marriage and that he did not want to be married anymore.
On or about December 5, 2003, the defendant told his former lover a blatant lie: that his wife and two youngest boys had been in a car accident, that the boys were okay, but that his wife was seriously injured. For the next week – the seven days preceding Inga Wilson’s murder – the defendant frequently gave his ex-girlfriend updates on his wife’s supposed grave condition at the hospital. The defendant indicated that his wife was on life support and that the plan was to leave her on life support until Friday, December 12, at which time he and Inga Wilson’s family members would “pull the plug.”
Subsequently-obtained “cell site” records for the defendant’s Nextel phone showed that, at 12:51 a.m., on Saturday, December 13, 2003, at a time when the defendant claimed he was in Upper Marlboro, MD, his cell phone made a 52-second call from a Nextel cell site in Northeast Washington. The records showed that the cell site that processed the defendant’s call was 13.8 miles from his home, yet only approximately ½ mile from where his wife’s dead body was found the following afternoon. Based on these records, expert testimony established that defendant was in Northeast Washington, D.C., and not – as he claimed – in Upper Marlboro, MD, around the time of his wife’s murder.
The evidence at trial also established that the defendant acquired a handgun approximately a week before the murder, and that he admitted on a consensual video recording that he got rid of the gun by throwing it in the Patuxent River following his wife’s death. The evidence also showed that the defendant took out a $218,000 life insurance policy on his wife six days before the murder, on December 7, 2003.
In announcing the verdict, U.S. Attorney Taylor praised the dogged determination exhibited by the lead Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) investigator in this case, Detective George Blackwell of the Violent Crimes Branch, as well as the superb work of Lieutenant Paul Wingate of the Violent Crime Branch and former FBI Special Agent Brad Garrett, both of whom assisted Detective Blackwell with the 3 ½ -year investigation that culminated in today’s guilty verdicts. The U.S. Attorney also thanked FBI Special Agent Gary Gerszewski, now with the FBI’s San Diego Field Office; Metropolitan Police Department Detectives Jacqueline Middleton, Michael Pavero, Marlon Gainey, and Anthony Brigidini, all of whom were with the Violent Crimes Branch at various times during the course of the investigation; Evidence Technicians Pamela Cooper and James Savage of the Forensic Sciences Division; Officer Luciano Morales of the Firearms Examination Section; Gloria Graves of MPD’s Fingerprint Identification Section; and Detective John Hamer of the Fifth District, who at the time of the murder was a patrol officer assigned to the Fifth District. U.S. Attorney Taylor also praised the work of staff at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Paralegal Specialists Richard Cheatham, Nicole Tate, and Eugene Lee; Legal Assistants Debra Joyner and Mary Doster; Intelligence Specialist Larry Grasso; and Litigation Technology Specialists Kimberly Smith and Joe Calavrese. Finally, the U.S. Attorney thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew P. Cohen, who prosecuted the case.