Brandon Smith, 38, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for the July 4, 2023, death of 43-year-old Charles Stanton, of Washington, D.C., announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Chief Pamela Smith, of the Metropolitan Police Department.
In addition to the prison term, Superior Court Judge Marisa Demeo ordered five years of supervised release and ordered him to register as a gun offender.
Smith pleaded guilty to second degree murder while armed on February 4, 2024. According to the government’s evidence, at approximately 4:28 p.m. on July 4, 2023, police received a 911 call for a shooting in the unit bloc of Patterson Street, Northeast, Washington, D.C. Officers arrived to find Stanton lying in the street with multiple gunshot wounds to the body.
He was unconscious and not breathing. Despite all life-saving efforts, Stanton succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at 4:40 p.m. It was later determined he had sustained at least 13 gunshot wounds.
During the course of the investigation, detectives viewed video surveillance footage from locations near and around the crime scene that captured the defendant’s car in the unit block of Patterson Street, NE, prior to the shooting. At the time, the victim was sitting on a bicycle on the north side of the street, interacting with someone in another vehicle. The video captured Mr. Stanton riding away from that vehicle and toward the defendant’s car.
A short time later, the defendant exited his car where he engaged the decedent in a conversation. After a few minutes of conversation, the defendant retrieved a handgun from his pants, moved a few steps toward Stanton and, as Stanton attempted to leave on the bicycle, extended his right arm toward Stanton. The surveillance video captured Stanton falling from the bicycle to the ground and never getting back up.
The defendant walked toward Stanton and continued to shoot the victim, who remained helpless and defenceless on the ground. No weapons were found on the decedent’s person or near his body. The defendant then reentered his vehicle and left the scene.
In reviewing the surveillance video, detectives were able to retrieve the license plate number on the defendant’s car, which ultimately led to his identification and arrest.
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