Friday, March 1, 2024

Victim Was Attempting to Break Up an Altercation When Killed

            WASHINGTON – Marquette Jordan, 32, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to 32 years in prison and five years of supervised release for the April 2018 fatal stabbing of 48-year-old Ivan Lynch in Southeast D.C., announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Chief Pamela Smith, of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). A jury returned guilty verdicts, in December 2023, on charges of second-degree murder while armed, carrying a dangerous weapon, and assault.   

            According to the government’s evidence, on April 30, 2018, the victim, Ivan Lynch, who had just attended a birthday celebration for himself, left the party and was going to meet up with a friend at his apartment. On the way to the friend’s apartment, Mr. Lynch picked up the defendant Marquette Jordan, the defendant’s girlfriend, the girlfriend’s two young children, and a childhood friend of the defendant.

            Once inside the apartment, a verbal altercation occurred between Jordan and his girlfriend in front of her two young children. Mr. Lynch intervened and reportedly told the defendant that that is not how we treat women. Jordan and Mr. Lynch then engaged in a verbal dispute resulting in a physical fight between the two men inside the apartment. During the fight, Jordan grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen and stabbed Mr. Lynch once in the shoulder, twice in the heart, and three times in the back. After stabbing Mr. Lynch, Jordan then continued to physically assault his girlfriend, threatened to kill her, and charged at her with a knife. The girlfriend grabbed a pillow and fled the apartment without her shoes, and leaving behind her minor children until she returned later that day.

            The defendant went through the victim’s pockets before leaving the apartment. School surveillance captured Jordan walking with the two children after the homicide. He was stopped outside by MPD officers shortly after leaving the apartment and law enforcement officers found Mr. Lynch’s keys and his blood on Jordan’s pants and shirt. The murder weapon, the butcher knife, was never recovered. Officers also found Mr. Lynch’s cell phone discarded in an area where the defendant was observed walking, according to surveillance footage in the area. Mr. Lynch’s wallet was mailed from a nearby school to the address on his driver’s license.  

             In sentencing the defendant, Superior Court Judge Rainey Brandt agreed with the government that the circumstances warranted a departure above the D.C. Superior Court Voluntary Sentencing Guidelines.

            This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department.

            This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Natalie M. Hynum and Omeed A. Assefi of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Valuable assistance was provided by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emma McArthur, Marybeth Manfreda, and Richard Barker as well as Grazy Rivera, Kelly Blakeney, Meridith McGarrity, Charlie Bruce, Tracy Owusu, Zachary McMenamin, Karina Hernandez, Katina Adams Washington, Maenylie Watson, and Robert Cephas.