A drug deal and confrontation over missing vials of PCP led to the District’s last homicide of 2012, according to court documents filed Wednesday for the 18-year-old suspect in the case.
Khari N. Williams, who celebrated his 18th birthday Wednesday as he was presented in D.C. Superior Court, is charged with first-degree murder in the Dec. 30 killing of Angelo Alphonso Payne of Southeast. Officers found Mr. Payne, 23, dying in an alleyway in the 3400 block of Croffutt Place in Southeast shortly after midnight. He had been shot in the head. Around his body, police found three spent shell casings from a 9mm handgun, according to court documents filed in D.C. Superior Court.
Police said Mr. Williams told at least one person, who was interviewed by Metropolitan Police Department detectives, that he shot Mr. Payne after asking him whether he had stolen his stash of PCP.
Mr. Williams sold some PCP to Mr. Payne on the day before the shooting but noticed sometime after the transaction that he was missing two large vials of PCP, according to the witness police interviewed. Mr. Williams asked Mr. Payne to come to the alleyway to meet him, and asked whether Mr. Payne stole the vials.
“When the decedent did not answer fast enough, Khari stated that he shot him,” court records state.
Another witness, who knew Mr. Williams, described seeing him walk toward the alley wearing a black, open-face ski mask and Helly Hansen jacket shortly before the shooting. The same witness said that after hearing three gunshots, Mr. Williams was seen in the same clothing walking back out of the alley at a fast pace.
Mr. Williams is being held until a preliminary hearing scheduled for Jan. 18.
