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Man convicted in 2023 shooting of trans woman requests new trial

Prosecutor disputes claim that victim lied about role as sex worker

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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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District of Columbia

Ruby Corado sentencing postponed for third time

Attorneys say former Casa Ruby director has ‘significant medical issues’

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Ruby Corado has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

A federal judge on April 8 approved a request by defense attorneys to postpone the sentencing of Ruby Corado, the founder and executive director of the now closed D.C. LGBTQ community services organization Casa Ruby on a charge of wire fraud, from April 29 to July 29. 

Court records show that Judge Trevor N. McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia approved a motion filed by Corado’s two defense attorneys on that same day calling for the sentencing postponement on grounds of health issues.

“Ms. Corado has significant medical issues,” the April 8 motion states. “She has an important medical appointment related to one of her diagnoses scheduled in June 2025 and will need time to recover from that appointment,” it says.

The motion gives no further details on Colorado’s medical issues. A.J. Kramer, director of the D.C. Office of the Federal Public Defender, whose attorneys are representing Corado, said the office has a policy of never disclosing specific medical related information regarding its clients.

Court records show that prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C. did not object to the defense motion seeking the third sentencing postponement. 

The records show that an earlier postponement of the sentencing, from March 28 to April 29, was initiated by the judge due to a scheduling conflict. The first postponement from Jan. 10 to March 28 came at the request of Corado’s attorneys, court records show.

Corado pleaded guilty on July 17, 2024, to a single charge of wire fraud as part of a plea bargain deal offered by prosecutors. The charge to which she pleaded guilty says she allegedly diverted at least $150,000 “in taxpayer backed emergency COVID relief funds to private offshore bank accounts for her personal use,” according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Prosecutors have said funds that Corado allegedly diverted for her own use were intended to be used by Casa Ruby in support of its various programs, including housing services for homeless LGBTQ youth and support for LGBTQ immigrants.

The U.S. Attorney’s statement also notes that in 2022, when “financial irregularities at Casa Ruby became public,” Corado sold her home in Prince George’s County, Md. and “fled to El Salvador.” It was at that time that Casa Ruby ceased its operations.

Court records show that FBI agents arrested Corado on March 5, 2024, at a hotel in Laurel, Md., shortly after she returned to the U.S. At the request of her attorney and against the wishes of prosecutors, another judge at that time agreed to release Corado into custody of her niece in Rockville, Md., under a home detention order.

The release order came seven days after Corado had been held in jail at the time of her arrest by the FBI.

Under the federal wire fraud law Corado could be sentenced to a possible maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s statement. However, court observers have said that due to Corado’s decision to waive her right to a trial and plead guilty, prosecutors will likely ask the judge to hand down a lesser sentence than the maximum sentence.  

The statement by prosecutors points out that Corado’s decision to plead guilty to the one charge came after she had been charged in a criminal complaint filed on March 1, 2024, with bank fraud, wire fraud, laundering of monetary instruments, monetary transactions in criminally derived proceeds, and failure to file a report of foreign bank accounts. 

All those charges except for the wire fraud charge were dropped at the time of her guilty plea.

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District of Columbia

A room with Pride: D.C.’s LGBTQ history finds a new home at the Eaton

New suites highlight city’s queer community

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(Washington Blade photo by Joe Reberkenny)

Blocks away from where Frank Kameny once organized the first pickets for gay rights in Washington, a new hotel suite invites guests to relax, recharge, and revel in the LGBTQ history of the city with the capital’s first-ever Pride-themed room at the Eaton Hotel.

From the walls covered in Washington Blade archival photos from the past 50 years, to a vinyl library that spans decades and genres of music celebrated by LGBTQ fans, and little affirmations written on the mirrors, it becomes clear as soon as you open the door that this room is one of a kind.

The Blade sat down with Nina Ligon, the director of culture for the Eaton, in the suite to discuss why the boutique hotel has chosen to debut a Pride-themed room and how their unique mission-driven hospitality is at the center of it all.

Starting with how the relationship between the Blade and Eaton came to be, Ligon explained that the collaboration with D.C.’s principal LGBTQ newspaper has been around longer than she has been with the hotel.

“The Blade has always been present,” Ligon said. “It’s one of the entities here in the city that’s just always been around. When I came into my position here at Eaton, Sheldon Scott — our original director of culture who helped open the hotel — already had a relationship with Stephen [Rutgers] and other members of the Washington Blade. Through that we have been able to establish a really strong relationship in the city.”

That relationship flourished after the boutique hotel, which sees itself as more than a hotel — but a cultural hub for those wishing to explore Washington — was nominated for the Best of LGBTQ DC Awards, given out and published by the Blade.

(Washington Blade photo by Joe Reberkenny)

“Beginning in 2022 we were first voted for best LGBTQ hotel in the city by the Best of LGBTQ DC Awards,” she said. “In 2023 we fell off, but that’s all right. We did get Editor’s Choice in 2024, and we’re gonna make a comeback.”

That comeback, Ligon hopes, is aided by the addition of the new Capital Pride-themed hotel suite, which used feedback from LGBTQ hotel staff to determine what went in the room.

“It’s community. We have a really great team here at Eaton, so we were able to put together a committee with anyone who wanted to be involved and have some say. And that’s not just the pride suite specifically, but World Pride in general — in our pride efforts, 365, right throughout the year. A lot of these,” she said, pointing to the walls covered in framed photos taken from the Blade archive, “are ideas that came up during those early meetings just a few months ago. There were discussions of inflatable chairs and disco balls, and I was for it. I’m here to support their creative vision. And you know, we have to involve the corporate folks, and they’re a little more traditional than some of us. But the team really came together with some of the pieces and the timeline wall art that we’re working on.”

Ligon continued, explaining that special attention was given to ensure diverse LGBTQ experiences are represented in the room. From the pictures of LGBTQ icons like Marsha P. Johnson and RuPaul, to the music on their sound system (including Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” and Troye Sivan’s “Bloom”), and the quotes on the walls, their goal was to uplift the whole LGBTQ community rather than one particular identity.

“My colleague, Eduardo [Romero], who’s been just a beam of light in my life, brought this to my attention. As a Black woman, I was reading through the Blade’s archive links and was sifting through some of those and he was like, ‘Okay, yeah, these look good, but there’s some people who are missing.’ Capital Pride has been traditionally cis, white male led. He helped me, as a Black woman, to step back and say. ‘Say, oh, wait, there’s more that we can be representing here. There are more people we could be representing.’ And so I reached out to DC Black Pride to see what image imagery they may have had and what input they had. And we were able to come up with a little something.”

As the tour of the room came to a close, Ligon told the Blade what she hopes people get from staying in this suite.

“When it comes to Pride, Pride is resistance,” she said. “Pride is more than just a party. Pride is an opportunity. It started with people who were fighting for their rights and their mere existence. And so I really want people, whether they come here to party or to take a load off, I really want them to take some time to reflect and see Pride for what it is, and that first being a form of resistance as we chart the course forward into a brighter future for the LGBTQ community and for all. None of us are free until we are all free. And I hope that this will be a reflection of that.”

The Eaton Hotel is at 1201 K St., N.W.

The first issue of the Washington Blade (upper left) as well as two archival Blade images (center) are on display at the Eaton. (Photo courtesy of the Eaton)
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District of Columbia

Little Gay Pub to host April 25 celebration of life for Patrick Shaw

School teacher, D.C. resident praised for ‘warmth, humor, kindness’

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Patrick Shaw (Photo via GoFundMe)

Co-workers and friends will hold a celebration of life for highly acclaimed schoolteacher and D.C. resident Patrick Shaw beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 25 at The Little Gay Pub 1100 P St., N.W.

Little Gay Pub co-owner and Shaw’s friend, Dusty Martinez, said Shaw passed away unexpectedly on April 19 from a heart related ailment at the age of 60.

“Patrick touched so many lives with his warmth, humor, kindness, and unmistakable spark,” Martinez said. “He was a truly special soul – funny, vibrant, sassy, and full of life and we are heartbroken by his loss.”

In an Instagram posting, Shaw’s colleagues said Shaw was a second-grade special education teacher at the J.F. Cook campus of D.C.’s Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School.

“Patrick brought warmth, joy, and deep commitment to Mundo Verde,” his colleagues said in their posting. “His daily Broadway sing-alongs, vibrant outfits, and genuine love for his students filled our community with energy and laughter.”

The posted message adds, “Patrick was more than a teacher; he was a light in our school, inspiring us all to show up with heart, humor, and kindness every day. His spirit will be deeply missed.”

The Washington Blade is preparing a full obituary on Patrick Shaw to be published soon. 

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