WASHINGTON — A federal jury found four men guilty of murder Tuesday in connection to a 2018 kidnapping of a Maryland man whose body was found in an alley in Southeast, D.C.
Police say the victim had been shot multiple times and his hands were still bound with zip-ties when officers discovered him in June of 2018.
Following a trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday, Darin Moore, Jr. 29, of Bowie, M.D., Gabriel Brown, 33, and John Sweeney, 29, both from Washington, D.C., were found guilty of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping resulting in death, first-degree murder while armed and felony murder. Authorities say James Thomas Taylor, 33, also of Washington, D.C., was found guilty of kidnapping resulting in death and felony murder. A mistrial was declared on the remaining two counts in the indictment against Taylor.
Officials said all four defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 6, 2023 for their involvement in the following incident.
On June 19, 2018, according to the government's evidence, 28-year-old Andre Simmons, Jr., from Bowie, M.D., was abducted at gunpoint in Maryland, bound with zip ties and forced into a car by Moore and Sweeney. During the next few hours, several ransom calls were made from Taylor's phone to Simmons' family, who delivered $7,000 in cash to a drop-off location as instructed by the kidnappers. Brown subsequently went to get the money.
An hour after the ransom payment was made, around 6:25 a.m. on June 20, 2018, authorities say the defendants shot Simmons 19 times and left his zip-tied body in an alley off the 600 block of Atlantic Street SE.
Police say the four men then met up in Capitol Heights, Maryland, to divide up the proceeds of the ransom.
Officers arrested Moore on June 20, 2018, Brown on June 27, 2018, Taylor on Aug. 17, 2018, and finally Sweeney on Jan. 14, 2019. All four have been in custody since their arrests.
This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and MPD’s Homicide Division, with assistance by the Prince George’s County Police Department and the U.S. Marshal Service.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven Wasserman, Laura Crane, and Will Hart, of the Violence Reduction and Trafficking Offenses Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
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