A then 26-year-old U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman charged in the Jan. 6, 2019, murder of gay retail manager Vongell Lugo inside Lugo’s D.C. apartment is scheduled to go on trial for first-degree murder and other charges on April 18, 2023, according to D.C. Superior Court records.

A spokesperson for the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, which is prosecuting the case, has confirmed the trial date but declined to say why or whether it is unusual that it has taken more than four years to schedule a trial for a suspect arrested at the scene of the murder and on the day it took place.

Court records and a D.C. police arrest affidavit filed in court state that then U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Collin J. Potter allegedly stabbed Lugo at least 47 times in the upper body and genital area shortly after Lugo, 36, invited him into his apartment at 2844 Wisconsin Ave., N.W. near the Washington National Cathedral.

The arrest affidavit says police arrived at the apartment building when a neighbor called 911 after hearing screams coming from Lugo’s apartment. Upon their arrival, the affidavit says, officers saw Potter fully nude standing over Lugo’s nude body, which was lying on the floor in the hall outside Lugo’s apartment door.

“Defendant Potter had blood visible on various areas of his body, to include his arms and feet, however he did not have any apparent injuries,” the arrest affidavit says.

During an April 26, 2019 preliminary hearing in D.C. Superior Court, D.C. Police Homicide Det. Tony Covington testified that police believe Potter dragged Lugo outside the apartment door after allegedly fatally stabbing him inside the apartment.

Covington in his testimony reiterated the arrest affidavit’s assertion that Potter referred to Lugo as his “girlfriend” and as “she” when officers first approached him outside the apartment. NBC News reported that police sources said Potter told police his “girlfriend” had died by suicide and he asked police to kill him.

The detective also testified that a police investigation found that Potter and Lugo met on the night of the murder at the Black Whisky bar at 1410 14th St., N.W. in D.C. Covington said the investigation at that time had not determined whether Potter and Lugo knew each other prior to the time they met up at the Black Whiskey on the night of the murder.

A friend of Lugo’s told the Washington Blade that Lugo, who was openly gay, liked to hang out at straight bars and the Black Whiskey was one of the bars he patronized.

In his court testimony, Det. Covington said police had no known motive for why Potter allegedly stabbed Lugo to death in the apartment.

Court records show police initially charged Potter with second-degree murder and prosecutors extended a plea bargain offer calling for him to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for prosecutors not seeking a first-degree murder charge before a grand jury. The court records show Potter through a court-appointed attorney rejected the offer.

The records show a D.C. Superior Court Grand Jury on Aug. 20, 2019, handed down a five-count indictment against Potter, charging him with two counts of First-Degree Felony Murder While Armed, Felony Murder While Armed Aggravating Circumstances, First-Degree Sexual Abuse While Armed, and Kidnapping.

Potter has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Under D.C.’s criminal code, First Degree Sexual Abuse replaced what used to be the charge of rape under D.C. law.

“On or about January 6, within the District of Columbia, Collin Potter, while armed with and having readily available a dangerous weapon, that is a knife or other sharp object, engaged in a sexual act with Vongell Lugo, that is, the penetration of Vongell Lugo’s anus by Collin Potter’s penis, by using force against Vongell Lugo (First Degree Sexual Abuse While Armed),” the indictment states.

The indictment states that on the same day and location, while armed with a knife, Potter “seized, confined, kidnapped, abducted, physically assaulted and carried away Vongell Lugo, with the intent to hold and detain Vongell Lugo, for the purpose of sexually assaulting him (Kidnapping While Armed).”

During the April 2019 preliminary hearing, in which Judge Juliet McKenna found probable cause that Potter committed the offense, defense attorney Matthew Davies argued that police and prosecutors provided insufficient evidence that Potter committed the murder. He said the evidence cannot rule out the assertion by the defense that the murder was committed by someone else who had access to Lugo’s apartment.

“We don’t know who else was in that apartment and who else was in there and left,” he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nebiyu Feleke, one of the prosecutors in the case, argued that prosecutors presented “ample evidence” to show Potter and Lugo were the only two in the apartment at the time of the murder. He noted that Potter himself told police at the time they arrived on the scene that he and Lugo were the only two in the apartment that night.

Court observers have said the COVID-19 pandemic has caused delays in many cases, especially civil cases, pending before the D.C. Superior Court, and that could have played a role in the delay in scheduling the trial for Potter.

Court records show that Davies, Potter’s attorney, introduced an emergency motion in March 2020 requesting that Potter be released into a halfway house while awaiting trial because of the high risk of contracting and dying from COVID in the D.C. Jail. The records show that, at the request of prosecutors, the judge denied the motion on grounds that Potter would pose a risk to the community if released.

Potter has been held without bond since the time of his arrest. The next court hearing, prior to the start of the April 18 trial, is a trial readiness hearing scheduled for Feb. 18 before Judge Marisa J. Demeo.

More than 80 friends, co-workers, and family members turned out for a candlelight vigil to honor the life of Lugo, which was held Jan. 11, 2019 in a small park across the street from where Lugo lived. Among those participating were employees of TransPerfect, an international company that provides foreign language translation, interpretation and business services where Lugo worked as an associate manager.