WASHINGTON — A D.C. police officer was found guilty on all charges after a month-and-a-half-long trial surrounding a police pursuit death of Karon Hylton Brown. The verdict came Wednesday on the fifth day of jury deliberations, and marks the first time a D.C. officer has been convicted of murder in the line of duty.
Officer Terence Sutton, 38, was charged with second-degree murder, conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of justice for chasing the 20-year-old father after an attempted traffic stop for riding a moped on the sidewalk without a helmet. Sutton's supervisor, 54-year-old Lt. Andrew Zabavsky, stood trial with him, and was also convicted of conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of justice for covering up what happened.
The chase lasted three-and-a-half minutes, taking the pair the wrong way down one-way streets, through blind alleys, and at times, more than twice the speed limit. It ended when Hylton Brown rode out into oncoming traffic on Kennedy Street and was hit by a driver who had piled his whole family into a Scion. Hylton Brown died in the hospital two days later, on Oct. 25, 2020.
Officer Sutton appeared shocked by the verdict when it was read, turning bright red and putting his head down as jury foreman read that he had been found guilty on all three charges.
Hylton Brown's death touched off days of protests and violent clashes between officers and demonstrators outside the 4th District police station in Northwest D.C., as the nation grappled with racial justice and the police murder of George Floyd.
"My child was human, he didn't deserve that," his mother, Karen Hylton, told WUSA9 on the first anniversary of her son's death. "He wasn't out here, robbing and stealing, and doing all that, no! He wasn't doing all that!"
Karen Hylton was in court Wednesday, screaming and shouting as the verdict came down. Judge Paul Friedman stood up and yelled, "get out! Get out of the courtroom," before she was led out of the room by bailiffs. Karen Hylton was later placed under arrest by U.S. Marshals. Witnesses said they were told she had assaulted a marshal, but insisted she never assaulted anyone; WUSA9 is working to get more information on her arrest.
"This is not was justice looks like, this is what accountability looks like," longtime activist Nee Nee Taylor, one of the founder's of Harriet's Wildest Dreams, said in reaction to the verdict.
Sutton was part of a crime suppression unit, and his attorney alleged that Hylton Brown was in Brightwood Park to retaliate after an earlier dispute. The attorney argued that Hylton-Brown was a known member of the Kennedy Street crew, which allegedly operates an open-air drug market, and that Hylton-Brown had been stopped twice before as a juvenile with a handgun.
Hylton Brown "would be alive today," lawyer J. Michael Hannon told jurors if he'd stopped his moped.
"He might have been arrested with a weapon, he might have been arrested with drugs. But he'd be alive," Hannon said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ahmed Baset responded that it was Sutton on trial for murder, not Hylton Brown. Baset told jurors that it was not "rocket science" and called it a cold-blooded murder.
The day before the verdict was reached, jurors offered a hint into what they were still debating when they sent out a note asking the judge for a definition of two key phrases: "conscious disregard" and "extreme risk."
Baset's office had alleged that by chasing Hylton Brown -- in violation of MPD rules -- Sutton had shown "conscious disregard of the extreme risk of death or serious bodily injury." Sutton had also been reprimanded for chasing someone else a year earlier.
Both Sutton and Zabavsky were released pending sentencing. The prosecution has 60 days to submit sentencing memorandum, and the defense will then have a chance to respond. It could take months to set a sentencing date.
The charge of second-degree murder carries a maximum of 40 years in prison; the conspiracy charge is up to five years; and obstruction of justice charge carries a maximum of 20 years.