A man who was a key witness in a murder trial in which prosecutors said the victim was killed in a dice dispute was himself gunned down late last week, also during a craps game.
Police initially feared the death of Delonte Haskins, 24, which occurred as jurors were deliberating in a case in which he had been a witness, was a revenge killing. Now they think it may be a grisly coincidence.
Haskins was shooting dice in the 3000 block of 30th street SE when he was gunned down Thursday night, police said. A few hours afterHaskins was killed, a D.C. jury convicted Andre Mason of second-degree murder in a 2007 slaying less than a block away from where Haskins was killed. Haskins testified against Mason during the trial.
Authorities have charged 17-year-old Gerald Washington with killing Haskins. Prosecutors alleged in court papers that Washington and Haskins got into a fight over the dice game. Washington went back inside his home and returned with a handgun.
It’s nearly the identical narrative in Mason’s case. Authorities alleged that he and 23-year-old Delonte “Big Face” Borum got into a fight over a game of dice and Mason shot and killed Borum, leaving him to die on the street.
Haskins’ death sent a tremor through law enforcement over the weekend, as authorities scrambled to determine whether he was killed in retribution for having turned against Mason.
At trial, Haskins authenticated recordings of phone conversations between himself and Mason made while Mason was awaiting trial in the Borum homicide.
Former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova said that it’s every prosecutor’s nightmare to have a witness killed.
“It’s the worst of all outcomes, especially if you have to do a retrial,” diGenova said. “It’s bad enough as it is getting people to come forward.”
Homicides in the city have continued to creep up after falling to a two-decade low in 2006. Between 2007-2008, D.C. saw its first back-to-back increase in homicides since 1989-1991, when the city was the nation’s “murder capital.”
There have been 34 slayings in D.C. so far this year — the same number as this time last year, police statistics show.
