Plea bargain deal to be offered in anti-gay stabbing

A woman and two men charged by D.C. police with committing an anti-gay hate crime in connection with the June 26 stabbing of a 16-year-old man outside D.C.’s Howard Theatre will be offered a plea bargain deal in the case next week, according to the prosecutor.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jin Park announced at a D.C. Superior Court hearing on Friday that the government was gathering information needed to make a plea offer but wasn’t able to do so Friday.

Judge Patricia Broderick scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for July 5, at which time Park said details of the plea offer would be announced.

D.C. police on June 26 charged Alvonica Jackson, 25, Ali Jackson, 19, and Desmond Campbell, 33, with assault with a dangerous weapon, a knife. The charge, which is listed as a felony, carries a maximum sentence of ten years in jail. Under the city’s hate crimes law, a judge has authority to extend the sentence if a defendant is convict or pleads guilty to a hate-motivated violent crime.

Police charging documents say that witnesses reported that at least one of the three defendants called the victim anti-gay names minutes before a verbal argument started between the victim and the three defendants. A police arrest affidavit says Ali Jackson allegedly stabbed the victim in the left bicep, lower back, and left leg after Campbell grabbed the victim from behind and held him in a “headlock.”

The affidavit says Alvonica Jackson assisted Campbell in holding the victim as the stabbing took place.

According to the affidavit, Alvonica Jackson referred to the victim as “faggy” at the time of her arrest after she waived her right to remain silent until after she obtain the services of an attorney.

Ali Jackson, Alvonica Jackson, and Campbell were escorted into the courtroom for Friday’s hearing wearing prison jump suits. Park said that at the government’s request, the three have been held in jail since the time of their arrest.

An online court docket for the three defendants incorrectly stated they had been released.

The victim in the case, whose name has been withheld because he’s a minor, was treated and released from Howard University Hospital on the night of the incident.