Local
Police say help from citizens led to arrest in trans murder
Man charged in case captured on video stabbing victim in face
At least five citizens came forward with information that enabled D.C. police to arrest a 55-year-old man charged last week in the murder of transgender woman Deoni Jones at a city bus stop on Feb. 2, according to a police arrest affidavit.
Police on Feb. 10 charged Gary Niles Montgomery of Northeast D.C. with second-degree murder while armed in connection with the fatal stabbing of Jones, 23, at a Metro bus stop at East Capitol and Sycamore streets, N.E.
A D.C. Superior Court judge ordered Montgomery held without bail at a court presentment hearing on Saturday, Feb. 11. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 23, where prosecutors are expected outline their case against him.
“Unlike what we have seen in the past, in this case, at the time when this homicide took place, passersby unrelated to the situation intervened – two passersby – and attempted to assist a person that they believed was being assaulted,” said D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier at the news conference she called to announce the arrest in the case.
“They stopped, they did what they could to help, and they notified police and they waited for police to come to the scene,” Lanier said. “And then we had people in the community who came forward and provided us the information that we need. And I want to thank all those who have helped us bring this case to closure.”
Lanier said police had yet to determine the motive for the murder and they had not ruled out classifying the case as a hate crime.
The police arrest affidavit reveals that a video released to the news media by police the day after the murder, which showed a man walking across a street that police identified as a “person of interest” in the case, also captured the murder itself.
In a chilling narrative, the affidavit says the video shows the suspect, later identified as Montgomery, and Jones sitting on a bench at the bus stop. It says one witness who also sat briefly on the same bench with Jones and Montgomery, before walking away, noticed that Montgomery was starring at Jones.
“Additionally, witness #3 reported that the [then] unknown black male [suspect] had ‘big eyes’ as if he was under the influence,” the affidavit says.
The affidavit says the video shows that at one point Jones got up and walked away from the bus stop and out of range of the video. It says the video shows Montgomery getting up and following Jones before Jones and then Montgomery returned to the bus stop and sat down on opposite ends of the bench.
“Approximately eight minutes following their return, the suspect is observed standing up facing the decedent, who remained sitting,” the affidavit says. “The suspect is then observed striking the decedent one time in the head, causing the decedent to collapse to the ground. The suspect is observed bending over and picking up what is believed to be the decedent’s purse,” the affidavit says.
“Upon doing this, witness #2 is observed confronting the suspect,” it says. “The suspect is observed dropping the decedent’s purse and running from the bus stop. Witness #2 is observed pursuing and apprehending the suspect. However, witness #2 became distracted for a moment, at which time the suspect escaped,” says the affidavit.
The affidavit says witness #2 was one of two motorists that observed Montgomery strike Jones as their car was stopped at a red light at a location close to the bus stop. It says both witnesses ran out of the car to help Jones, with one chasing after the suspect later identified as Montgomery.
The affidavit says detectives with the Homicide Branch learned after interviewing both witnesses that the witness who apprehended Montgomery became distracted after the other witness yelled that Jones was gravely injured and needed immediate medical attention.
An autopsy showed that Jones suffered a fatal stab wound to the right side of her face that penetrated her skull, the affidavit says. It says that when emergency medical technicians arrived at the scene of the crime they found a knife lodged in her head.
The police affidavit says at least three citizens who live in the area where the murder took place called police to say they recognized a “person of interest” shown in part of a video taken at the scene of the stabbing and released by police to the media.
Police haven’t identified the source of the video, but some observers believe it may have been from a police surveillance camera because the view shown is from an elevated position looking down at the street.
“[M]embers of the Metropolitan Police Department were contacted by Witness #4 who reported that while watching local news coverage of the crime, it viewed the surveillance footage and recognized the ‘person of interest’ to be an individual it has seen on a daily or weekly basis for the past ten years,” the affidavit says.
“Specifically, Witness #4 reported that the ‘person of interest’ is an individual who panhandles two blocks west of the crime scene near the intersection of East Capitol Street and Benning Road, N.E.,” the affidavit says. “Witness #4 reported that it recognized Gary Montgomery in the video based on physical description, clothing, and prominent limp.”
The affidavit says Witness #4 played a key role in Montgomery’s arrest when the witness observed Montgomery near the intersection of East Capitol Street and Benning Road shortly after the witness contacted police to say he recognized the “person of interest” from the video.
“Witness #4 immediately contacted law enforcement who responded to the scene and stopped Gary Montgomery,” the affidavit says. It says the witness identified Montgomery as the person of interest at the time police stopped him.
According to police, investigators learned later that Montgomery had been living in the basement of a vacant residence 208 44th Street, N.E., “on a daily basis for the past six months.”
D.C. Superior Court records show that Montgomery has been arrested seven times between 2004 and 2008 on misdemeanor, fugitive, and traffic related charges.
Police spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump said investigators do not consider Montgomery a suspect in the August 2009 daytime stabbing murder of transgender woman NaNa Boo Mack on a street in the city’s Shaw neighborhood, which remains unsolved.
Transgender activists praised what they called a thorough police investigation that led to Montgomery’s arrest and Lanier’s decision to shed a spotlight on the case by holding a news conference to announce the arrest.
“I am very pleased at the chief making this announcement herself,” said Earline Budd, an official with the D.C. transgender services and advocacy group Transgender Health Empowerment.
Budd said she also wants to thank the witness who intervened to help Jones and attempted to apprehend the suspect at the crime scene as well as “all of those who called in tips that led to this arrest.”
But Budd and other transgender activists noted that most of more than a half dozen transgender murders that have occurred in the city over the past several years remain unsolved.
“I don’t believe that we are yet where we should and want to be,” Budd said in an email to the Washington Blade.
District of Columbia
Ruby Corado sentenced to 33 months in prison
Former Casa Ruby director pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2024
A federal judge on Jan. 13 sentenced Ruby Corado, the founder and former executive director of the now closed D.C. LGBTQ community services organization Casa Ruby, to 33 months of incarceration for a charge of wire fraud to which she pleaded guilty in July 2024.
U.S. District Court Judge Trevor M. McFadden handed down the sentence that had been requested by prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia after Corado’s sentencing had been postponed six times for various reasons.
The judge also sentenced her to 24 months of supervised release upon her completion of incarceration.
In addition to the sentence of incarceration, McFadden agreed to a request by prosecutors to hold Corado responsible for “restitution” and “forfeiture” in the amount of $956,215 that prosecutors have said she illegally misappropriated from federal loans obtained by Casa Ruby.
The charge to which she pleaded guilty is based on allegations that she diverted at least $180,000 “in taxpayer backed emergency COVID relief funds to private offshore bank accounts,” according to court documents.
Court records show FBI agents arrested Corado on March 5, 2024, at a hotel in Laurel, Md., shortly after she returned to the U.S. from El Salvador, where authorities say she moved in 2022. Prosecutors have said in charging documents that she allegedly fled to El Salvador, where she was born, after “financial irregularities at Casa Ruby became public,” and the LGBTQ organization ceased operating.
Shortly after her arrest, another judge agreed to release Corado into the custody of her niece in Rockville, Md., under a home detention order. But at an Oct. 14, 2025, court hearing at which the sentencing was postponed after Corado’s court appointed attorney withdrew from the case, McFadden ordered Corado to be held in jail until the time of her once again rescheduled sentencing.
Her attorney at the time, Elizabeth Mullin, stated in a court motion that her reason for withdrawing from the case was an “irreconcilable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship.”
Corado’s newly retained attorney, Pleasant Brodnax, filed a 25-page defense Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing on Jan. 6, calling for the judge to sentence Corado only to the time she had already served in detention since October.
Among other things, Brodnax’s defense memorandum disputes the claim by prosecutors that Corado improperly diverted as much as $956,215 from federally backed loans to Casa Ruby, saying the total amount Corado diverted was $200,000. Her memo also states that Corado diverted the funds to a bank account in El Salvador for the purpose of opening a Casa Ruby facility there, not to be used for her personally.
“Ms. Corado has accepted responsibility for transferring a portion of the loan disbursements into another account she operated and ultimately transferring a portion of the loan disbursements to an account in El Salvador,” the memo continues.
“Her purpose in transferring funds to El Salvador was to fund Casa Ruby programs in El Salvador,” it says, adding, “Of course, she acknowledges that the terms of the loan agreement did not permit her to transfer the funds to El Salvador for any purpose.”
In his own 16-page sentencing recommendation memo, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Borchert, the lead prosecutor in the case, said Corado’s action amounted at the least to fraud.
“The defendant and Casa Ruby received no less than $1.2 million in taxpayer backed funds during the COVID-19 global health crisis,” he memo states. “But rather than use those funds to support Casa Ruby’s mission as the defendant promised, the defendant further contributed to its demise by unlawfully transferring no less than $180,000 of these federal emergency relief funds into her own private offshore bank accounts,” it says.
“Then, when media reports suggested the defendant would be prosecuted for squandering Casa Ruby’s government funding, she sold her home and fled the country,” the memo states. “Meanwhile, the people who she had promised to pay with taxpayer-backed funds – her employees, landlord, and vendors – were left behind flat broke.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office and Corado’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request from the Washington Blade for comment on the judge’s sentence.
“Ms. Corado accepts full responsibility for her actions in this case,” defense attorney Brodnax says in her sentencing memo. “She acknowledges the false statements made in the loan applications and that she used some of the money outside the United States,” it says.
“However, the money was still utilized for the same purpose and intention as the funds used in the United States, to assist the LGBTQ community,” it states. “Ms. Corado did not use the money to buy lavish goods or fund a lavish lifestyle.”
Brodnax also states in her memo that as a transgender woman, Corado could face abuse and danger in a correctional facility where she may be sent if sentenced to incarceration.
“Ruby Corado committed a crime, she is now paying the price,” said D.C. LGBTQ rights advocate Peter Rosenstein. “While it is sad in many ways, we must remember she hurt the transgender community with what she did, and in many ways they all paid for her crime.”
Virginia
Woman arrested for anti-gay assault at Alexandria supermarket
Victim recorded video of Christmas Day attack
Alexandria police announced on Jan. 12 that a Maryland woman has been arrested for allegedly assaulting a man while shouting anti-gay slurs at him at a Giant supermarket in Alexandria on Christmas Day.
The arrest came after a video of the assault that the victim captured with his phone and on which the woman can be heard shouting anti-gay slurs went viral on social media.
Police identified the woman as Shibritney Colbert, 34, of Landover, Md. Alexandria Police Chief Tarrick McGuire stated at a news conference that police responded to a 911 call placed by the victim and attempted to apprehend the woman, but she drove off in her car before police could apprehend her.
He said following an investigation, Colbert was apprehended and arrested in Prince Goerge’s County, Md., on Jan. 8. He said arrangements were being made for her to be brought to Alexandria where she was expected to face charges of assault and battery, destruction of property, felony eluding, and driving an unregistered vehicle.
The video of the incident shows Colbert pushing a shopping cart she was using in an aisle at the Giant store, located at 3131 Duke St., into the victim and another woman who was trying to help the victim. She can be seen throwing groceries at the victim while shouting anti-gay names. “Boy, get out of here with your gay ass,” was among the words she yelled at him that could be heard on the video.
The victim, who police identified only as a 24-year-old man, could be heard on the video saying he does not know the woman and urging her to “please back up.”
“Based on the victim’s statement, comments exchanged prior to the assault, and the totality of the circumstances, investigators believe the victim was targeted because of his sexual orientation,” police said in a statement.
Tarrick said Colbert’s arrest came at a time when Alexandria police were completing a strengthened hate crime policy calling for detectives to investigate crimes based on hate and for the department to prepare reports on hate crimes twice a year.
“Hate crimes are not just crimes against individuals, they are offenses that threaten the entire community and undermine the fundamental principles of dignity, equality, and safety,” Tarrick said.
Alexandria police didn’t immediately respond to a request from the Washington Blade for a copy of the official police report on the incident.
A link to the video posted on the social media site Reddit in which an unidentified man provides some details of the attack, can be accessed here:
Virginia
Mark Levine running in ‘firehouse’ Democratic primary to succeed Adam Ebbin
Outgoing gay Va. state senator has endorsed Elizabeth Bennett-Parker
Gay former Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) is one of four candidates running in a hastily called “firehouse” Democratic primary to be held Tuesday, Jan. 13, to select a Democratic nominee to replace gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria)
Ebbin, whose 39th Senate District includes Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax Counties, announced on Jan. 7 that he was resigning effective Feb. 18, to take a job in the administration of Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger.
The Jan. 13 primary called by Democratic Party leaders in Alexandria and Arlington will take place less than a week after Ebbin announced his planned resignation.
According to the Community News of Alexandria publication, a public debate between the four candidates was scheduled to take place one day earlier on Monday, Jan. 12, from 7-9 p.m. at the Charles Houston Recreation Center in Alexandria.
The winner of the so-called firehouse primary will compete in a Feb. 10 special election in which registered voters in the 39th District of all political parties and independents will select Ebbin’s replacement in the state Senate.
The other candidates competing in the primary on Tuesday, in addition to Levine, include state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, former Alexandria Vice Mayor Amy Jackson, and World Wildlife Fund executive Charles Sumpter.
Another Alexandria news publication, ALXnow, reports that Ebbin, Spanberger, and at least four other prominent Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly have endorsed Bennett-Parker, leading political observers to view her as the leading contender in the race.
“I have worked alongside Elizabeth and have seen her fight for the values of our community,” Ebbin said in a statement, ALXnow reports.
Arlington gay Democratic activist TJ Flavall said Parker-Bennett has attended LGBTQ community events and is known as an LGBTQ ally.
Ebbin’s endorsement of Bennett-Parker over fellow gay politician Levine in the Jan. 13 firehouse primary follows what observers have said is a longstanding rivalry between the two over disagreements around legislative issues.
In 2021, Ebbin endorsed Parker-Bennett when she challenged Levine in the Democratic primary for his House of Delegates seat in the then 45th House District in Alexandria.
Parker-Bennett defeated Levine in that race at a time when Levine, in an unusual move, also ran for the position of lieutenant governor. He also lost that race.
ALXnow reports that in his Facebook announcement of his candidacy for Ebbin’s state Senate seat Levine discounted the relevance of the large number of prominent endorsements that Parker-Bennet has received. In campaigns that last for just a few days rather than weeks or months, “it’s about turnout,” ALX now quoted him as saying.
Levine, an attorney, has a longstanding record as an LGBTQ rights advocate. He worked as a legislative counsel to gay former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) before becoming a radio talk show host and TV political commentator in Virginia prior to his election to the Virginia House of Delegates.
The firehouse primary on Jan. 13, which is open only to voters with identification showing they live in the 39th District, will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. in these locations:
Alexandria: Charles E. Beatley, Jr. Public Library, 5005 Duke St.; and the Charles Houston Recreation Center, 901 Wythe St.
Arlington: Aurora Hills Library, 735 18th St. S.
Annandale: New John Calvin Presbyterian Church, 6531 Columbia Pike
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