Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of Columbia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, January 24, 2020

WASHINGTON – Donnell Mills, 30, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to a total of 21 years for second-degree murder while armed from a killing that took place in 2018 in Northeast Washington, announced U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu and Peter Newsham, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            The defendant pled guilty in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on October 22, 2019. He was sentenced by the Honorable Milton Lee. Following his prison term, he will be placed on five years of supervised release.

            According to the government’s evidence, on the morning of November 8, 2018, at approximately 9:29am, the decedent Jelani Mohammed was walking along the 1500 block of Benning Road NE, Washington, DC. The defendant and his co-defendant ran up behind the decedent and assaulted him while the defendant stabbed him one time with a knife belt puncturing the decedent’s right lung. Despite life-saving efforts, the decedent was pronounced dead at 9:59am. The defendant has been held without bond since his arrest on November 21, 2018.

           In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Liu and Chief Newsham commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department. They acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Assistant United States Attorney Katherine Earnest, Paralegal Specialists Stephanie Siegerist, Tameka Garcia, and Alesha Matthews; Victim/Witness Advocate Jennifer Clark.

           Finally, they commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica Trigoso, who investigated and prosecuted the case.