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A man found guilty by a D.C. Superior Court jury on Sept. 24 of aggravated assault while armed and four additional gun related charges for the Nov. 29, 2023, shooting of a transgender female sex worker in a Northeast D.C. apartment building is requesting through his attorney that the verdict be overturned and a new trial be held.
Court records show that the attorney representing D.C. resident Jerry Tyree, 46, filed a motion on Sept. 29 requesting a new trial, five days after the jury handed down its guilty verdict, on grounds that “newly discovered evidence” shows the victim allegedly perjured herself while testifying at the trial about her role as a sex worker.
Testimony by key prosecution witnesses at the trial, including Kayla Fowler, the victim, and police investigators, pointed out that Tyree and Fowler first met at the intersection of Eastern Avenue, N.E. and Foote Street, N.E., an area known as a gathering place for female trans sex workers, around 2 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2023.
“After negotiating a price for oral sex, the defendant and the victim walked together into a nearby apartment building, where the victim performed oral sex on the defendant,” according to a statement released after the trial by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C.
“The defendant then accused the victim of robbing him, and when she denied doing so, the defendant pulled out a small silver handgun and shot the victim directly into the penis before leaving the scene,” the statement says. “Police were called by a neighbor, and the victim was transported to the hospital, where she underwent multiple surgeries,” it says.
Evidence presented by police and prosecutors at the trial showed that on Dec. 30, 2023, a month after the shooting, police arrested Tyree after finding him in possession of a gun that was found to be the same handgun used to shoot Fowler.
Tyree testified at his trial that it was Fowler who had the gun and pulled it out after he accused her of stealing about $80 in cash from his pants pocket at the time she was performing oral sex on him. He told the jury he attempted to grab the gun from Fowler, which led to a struggle during which the gun fired, and Fowler was struck by a single bullet.
Court observers have said the jury clearly did not believe Tyree’s version of what happened and appeared to find the evidence presented by prosecution witnesses, including Fowler’s testimony, persuasive and prompted them to render a guilty verdict.
Prior to the defense motion for a new trial, a sentencing hearing for Tyree had been scheduled for Dec. 13. D.C. Superior Court Judge Errol Arthur, who is presiding over the case, changed the sentencing hearing to a status hearing pending the outcome of the motion calling for a new trial.
The Washington Blade couldn’t immediately obtain a copy of the defense motion seeking a new trial, which was not available in online court records and a court official couldn’t immediately access the document and provide it to the Blade. Tyree’s defense attorney, Sara Kopecki, didn’t respond to a Blade request seeking a copy of her motion.
But a court official was able to provide the Blade with the 21-page motion filed by the lead prosecutor in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Cocuzza, opposing the defense request for a new trial and disputing the defense claim that Fowler perjured herself on the witness stand during the trial.
According to prosecutor Cucuzza’s motion, the defense motion “patently misquotes the victim’s trial testimony” by claiming she testified that she “was now working as a peer educator for a nonprofit organization in Baltimore” and “no longer” working as a prostitute, feigning a “salvation story” to the jury.
Court records show that the nonprofit group she worked for was the LGBTQ supportive social services group Safe Haven, which has offices in Baltimore and D.C. Iya Dammons, Safe Haven’s executive director, told the Blade Fowler did well during the short time she worked there. Dammons said Fowler resigned from her job, saying she wanted to move to her mother’s home that may have been in North Carolina.
The prosecutor’s motion opposing a new trial states that the so-called new evidence that the defense motion refers to is a D.C. police report stating that Fowler went to the D.C. police Sixth District station to report that she was accosted by a man who threatened to kill her on Sept. 21 at 5920 Foote St., N.E., on the same block of the apartment building where she was shot.
The defense motion seeking a new trial, according to the prosecutor’s motion in opposition to a new trial, claims that Fowler was at the location where she was accosted while engaging in prostitution. The defense motion claims this proves Fowler lied on the witness stand when she said her work at Safe Haven in Baltimore gave her an opportunity to “change my life after that incident where I got shot” and implied she was no longer engaging in sex work.
The defense motion points out that she was engaging in prostitution while Tyree’s trial was still going on and a short time after she testified at the trial.
In his motion opposing a new trial, prosecutor Cocuzza says Fowler never stated in her trial testimony that she was no longer engaging in sex work. “Thus, the defense’s filing patently misquotes the victim’s trial testimony, and the victim did not lie under oath based on this ‘new evidence,’” Cocuzza’s motion states.
Cocuzza adds in his motion opposing a new trial, “Second, the victim’s return to prostitution after the close of evidence in this case would not ‘probably’ produce an acquittal, as the jury heard at length and in graphic detail about the victim’s sex work, which was a focal point of the trial.” He further adds in his motion, “The fact that she returned to the profession after the close of evidence has absolutely no impact on our trial.”
Defense attorney Kopecki did not respond to a Blade request for comment on the prosecutor’s motion opposing a new trial.
Court records show that on Dec. 11 Kopecki requested, and prosecutors did not oppose, her request for more time to file a response to the prosecutor’s lengthy motion opposing a new trial. The court records show that Judge Arthur granted the request and extended the deadline for her to submit her reply to Jan. 3, 2025.
It couldn’t immediately be determined when Judge Arthur plans to issue a ruling on whether or not a new trial should be held.
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