D.C. prosecutors revealed Instagram messages between a group of teenage girls after they allegedly beat an elderly man with disabilities last October.
Surveillance footage shows a man attacking Reggie Brown last October on Georgia Avenue NW before five girls ages 12-15 later joined the man, stomping Brown's head into the pavement and whipping him with his own belt, prosecutors said. Last week, one of the girls charged in the death testified they did it because they were bored.
“We were walking around trying to find someone to jump,” one voice memo said.
“We jumped somebody but killed him accidentally with some random man from Kennedy,” another message said.
In the trial for two of the girls Tuesday, one of the girls testified the man wore a blue coat and said Brown owed him money.
The defense argued D.C. police made several mistakes, like incorrectly attributing which detectives did certain actions in the case notes and not informing the girls of their rights. The defense for one of the girls also argued his client was misidentified and not present the night of the beating.
The girl who accepted her plea deal testified against the two girls currently on trial. During cross examination, the defense argued the witness’ testimony couldn’t be trusted and suggested she testified to get a lighter sentence.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
“Reggie was just a sweet spirit, and what has happened to him, I can’t believe it,” said Malda Brown, the victim’s sister.
Brown’s family said he was battling cancer and missing fingers because of lupus at the time of his death.
“It's very hard to keep living it over and over and over again, and seeing it and missing him, and knowing that his life has been taken away from him because they were bored,” Brown's sister Nasia Israel said.
Two of the girls have pleaded guilty. One agreed to three years in a secure juvenile facility.
If convicted, the girls would stay in the custody of D.C.’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services until they turn 21, but Brown’s family feels that punishments around juvenile crime should be tougher to prevent a similar situation occurring for another family.
“We’re not gonna let his death go in vain,” Israel said. "That’s what we’re standing for. That’s why you’re gonna see us here every single day, and we’re gonna be trying to meet with everybody possible to see that these laws can change, so it won’t affect no one else’s family.”
