WASHINGTON — DC Magistrate Judge Lloyd Nolan stunned a community when he gave pre-trial release to an 18-year-old accused of unloading an AR-15 rifle into a neighborhood. All of it was caught on at least three different cameras.
On Wednesday, a higher court judge threw out Nolan’s decision and sent 18-year-old Amonte Moody back to jail to await his trial.
“He’s 18, and he has a gun he’s not legally allowed to have,” said Superior Court Judge Errol Arthur. “And it appears the person in the video knew how to use the firearm, which is a concern to the court.”
“I am vacating Judge Nolan’s decision.”
The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia alleges Moody fired 26 shots from an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle onto Independence Avenue in Southeast April 22. Prosecutors say he was aiming at an SUV that was driving away during the 2 a.m. shooting, after a dispute over clothes.
No injuries were reported, although one viewer sent us photos of a bullet which allegedly hit the family’s car during the incident.
Despite felony charges of assault with assault with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, Moody walked out of DC Superior Court less than two weeks later, after Judge Nolan surprised prosecutors by granting him pre-trial release.
Nolan placed Moody on round-the-clock home detention equipped with a GPS monitor and a stay-away order from the occupants in the car.
Prosecutors immediately asked for an emergency hearing to revoke the teen's release. They argued despite defense attorney arguments, which emphasized the defendant’s supportive family and lack of criminal history, none of it stopped Moody from allegedly emptying the AR-15 onto a public street where “any innocent passerby or resident could have fallen victim.”
In court Wednesday, Judge Arthur said charges as serious as the ones Moody is facing carry a presumption the defendant will be held in jail before trial, unless the defense offers convincing evidence the community would not be at risk.
“The defense has the burden of production, not the burden of persuasion,” Arthur told DC Public Defender Kavya Naini who rejected arguments from Magistrate Judge Nolan eight different times when the judge offered reasons Moody should remain in jail, before ultimately releasing him.
Citing videos of the incident over and over again, Judge Arthur said the seriousness of the charges, the risk the shooter posed to the community that night, and the fact the teen allegedly had an AR-15 in the first place and knew how to use it, outweighed Moody’s lack of a criminal history.
“I listened to the audio and watched the video, and I couldn’t keep up with how many shots were fired,” Arthur said before he sent Moody back to jail to await his trial.
“I, like many of my neighbors, have watched that video over and over again. And what keeps going through our mind is but for the grace of God nobody died,” said Former ANC Commissioner Denise Krepp, who lives just blocks from the shooting.
“I’m grateful for the judge for sending this individual to jail. He belongs in jail.”
Moody’s trial is set for Aug. 27.