The office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, which prosecutes most people charged with committing crimes in the nation’s capital, disclosed for the first time earlier this month that a murder and an assault with a dangerous weapon that occurred in D.C. in 2021 have been classified as anti-LGBTQ hate crimes.

Court records show that arrests have been made in both cases and a man arrested in the murder case is being held without bond and is scheduled for a jury trial on May 6, 2024. Another man arrested in the unrelated anti-transgender assault case is scheduled to stand trial on Sept. 26, 2023.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda Monroe provided information about the two cases at a June 15 virtual meeting of the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Hate-Bias Task Force, which was attended by local LGBTQ activists.

Although Monroe provided only a brief description of the two cases, she disclosed the D.C. Superior Court case numbers for the cases, which enabled the Washington Blade to obtain further details of the cases.

Murder case

Public court records show that D.C. police, following a month-long investigation, charged D.C. resident Idrissa Idy Fall, 36, on Aug. 3, 2021, with the July 18, 2021, murder of his ex-girlfriend, Dara Northem.

A 7-page affidavit in support of Fall’s arrest prepared by a D.C. police homicide detective states that a friend of the victim listed as an eyewitness to the incident who is identified only as Witness 1, or W-1, called 911 and reported that Fall allegedly shot Northem in the head while Northem was sitting in the front passenger seat of Witness 1’s car.

Witness 1, according to the affidavit, said the car was parked in front of the house where Northem, Fall and another person lived at 6101 4th St., N.W. Witness 1, the affidavit continues, told police Fall shot Northem through the passenger side window seconds after Northem entered the car and after he chased after her and shouted at her, “Stop playing with me with that gay shit.”

The affidavit says the police investigation learned from Witness 1 and the other person who lived in the house with Fall and Northem, who is identified as Witness 2, that Fall and Northem were in a relationship that became strained when Northem became friends with and went out with Witness 1, who identifies as a lesbian.

“It was learned that the decedent’s sexual orientation was heterosexual, but W-1 is gay and there was no romantic relationship between the decedent and W-1,” the affidavit states. 

Nevertheless, the affidavit and other court documents filed by prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office imply that Fall believed his girlfriend, who broke up with him shortly before the murder while the two continued to live in the same house, was being “unfaithful” to him by having an affair with Witness 1.

“Witness 2 said the defendant had paranoia because the decedent had gay friends,” the affidavit says.

Like other hate crime cases it prosecutes, the U.S. Attorney’s official initially charged Fall with Second Degree Murder While Armed and did not list the case as a hate crime. But court records show that in November 2022, prosecutors brought the case before a D.C. Superior Court grand jury. 

The court records show that on Nov. 9, 2022, the grand jury handed down a three-count indictment against Fall, including First Degree Murder While Armed (Premeditated.) 

“The grand jury further charges that the murder was a bias-related (hate) crime,” the indictment states. Although the indictment doesn’t say so directly, court observers believe the hate crime classification is based on defendant Fall’s perception of Northem’s sexual orientation as being homosexual and his hatred toward her for becoming a gay woman as he saw her. 

The second count of the indictment charges Fall with Possession of a Firearm During Crime of Violence or Dangerous Offense; and the third count charges him with Unlawful Possession of a Firearm after having been previously convicted of a crime punishable for a prison term. 

The arrest affidavit says D.C. police learned that Fall pleaded guilty in November 2020 to a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol in Montgomery County (Md.) Circuit Court and was sentenced to 60 days with seven days suspended.   

Court records show that the first judge that presided over the case and another judge who replaced him each denied requests by defense attorneys requesting that Fall be released while awaiting trial. 

The records show that a status hearing for the case is scheduled for July 5, and a jury trial is scheduled for May 6, 2024. Neither the court records nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office have given a reason for why the trial could not be scheduled for an earlier date.

Man charged with assaulting woman while shouting anti-LGBTQ slurs

The second of the two cases disclosed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office involves an Oct. 23, 2021, incident in which Darryl Barnes, 45, whose address is not provided in court charging documents, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon for allegedly hitting a woman in the face with a metal pole inside Chen Sunny’s Carry Out restaurant at 3131 Rhode Island Ave., N.E.  

A D.C. police charging document says witnesses, including the woman who was allegedly assaulted, and another person who was with her, told police that Barnes called them both “faggots” shortly before he assaulted the woman.

“Officers interviewed Complaint 1, who stated that her and Complainant 2 were coming to the location to get something to eat when Defendant 1 produced a screwdriver and a pole and hit her in the face with the pole while wielding the screwdriver in his other hand,” the charging document says. 

The charging document says Complainant 1 sustained a small abrasion over the left cheek from the metal pole and Complainant 2 sustained a small abrasion to the left shoulder as a result of Barnes hitting them with the pole.

The charging documents do not say why Barnes was charged only with assaulting Complainant 1, who is identified by name as a woman. The Blade has a policy of not disclosing the names of crime victims except for murder cases if they cannot be reached for permission to use their names. Contact information for the victim could not immediately be obtained by the Blade.

Court records, like the murder case, show that Barnes was not immediately charged with a hate crime. But the records show that on May 31, 2023, at the request of prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a Superior Court grand jury handed down an indictment charging Barnes with Assault with a Dangerous Weapon that it classified as a hate crime.

“The grand jury further charges that such criminal act demonstrated the prejudice of Darryl Barnes based on the actual or perceived gender identity or expression of [name of victim],” the indictment states. 

Court records show that Barnes was initially ordered held in jail pending a mental health competency hearing, which was postponed several times. The records show that on Jan. 28, 2022, Superior Court Judge Michael Ryan issued an order finding Barnes “mentally incompetent” and ordered him to undergo “Inpatient Competency Restoration.” 

The court record shows that Ryan ordered that Barnes be committed to D.C.’s St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for the competency restoration process. According to the records, the judge on April 1, 2022, found Barnes incompetent to stand trial and ordered that the competency restoration process continue and be conducted on an inpatient basis. 

However, by July 29, 2022, the records show that Ryan approved Barnes eligible for release on his personal recognizance under the court’s High Intensity Supervision Program. 

On Nov. 29, 2022, the court record shows that Barnes, though his attorney, rejected a plea bargain offer made by prosecutors and a trial date was set for July 11, 2023, after the court determined he was competent for a trial.  But the records show that following the grand jury indictment against Barnes on May 31 of this year, the trail date was changed to July 26, 2023.