On Thursday Jevaughn Mark, 33, of D.C., was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison for running what prosecutors called a “prolific drug delivery service” that led to the fentanyl overdose deaths of two men in D.C.’s gay community.

The 15-year sentence comes three months after Mark, aka “Ledo,” pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl and 500 grams or more of cocaine, as well as unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. As part of the plea deal, Mark accepted responsibility for causing the deaths of Brandon Román and Robert “Robbie” Barletta. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan also ordered five years of supervised release following his prison term.

Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia argued that Mark knowingly sold fentanyl and was at least partially responsible for the men’s deaths. The office had asked the court for a 210-month sentence.

On Dec. 27, 2023, Román, 38, and Barletta, 28, were found unconscious in their Northwest Washington home after a 911 call brought police and emergency responders to the scene. A police investigation later revealed that Román had purchased what he believed was ketamine from Mark. DEA testing of the remaining drugs found no ketamine — only fentanyl, xylazine, and caffeine.

Friends and family members wore rainbow ribbons in solidarity with Román, a prominent D.C. attorney and LGBTQ rights advocate, and Barletta, a historic preservation expert and home renovation business owner — both of whom were active members of Washington’s gay community.

“There is no good outcome here,” Chutkan said from the bench before issuing the sentence. “These people didn’t deserve to die.”

While noting Mark’s “long record,” Chutkan opted for a sentence shorter than what the government had requested, citing what she believed to be genuine remorse.

“I believe Mr. Mark when he wishes he could take it back,” she said.

Following the sentencing, the Washington Blade spoke with Jeanine Pirro, the recently appointed U.S. Attorney for D.C., who echoed the judge’s compassion, but stood by her office’s push for a longer sentence.

“We had asked for more time,” Pirro said. “He’s a felon in possession, and there’s the fentanyl. But he’s got a prior record. There are various other crimes. This guy’s been operating with impunity.”

“My job is to make sure we recognize both Brandon and Robbie with dignity,” she added. “They are two very special human beings who should not have died — and they died as a result of not only someone else’s criminal behavior, but someone else’s reckless behavior in ignoring what he should not have ignored.”

DEA Special Agent in Charge Ibrar Mian emphasized the broader dangers of the drug trade in a written statement.

“The drug market is characterized by the illegal availability of polydrug mixtures, many of which have lethal amounts of fentanyl,” Mian said. “Criminals like Mr. Mark pose a deadly threat by selling drugs with fentanyl, which users unknowingly consume, often leading to their deaths. Illegal drug distribution affects the very foundations of our families and communities, so every time we take criminals like Mr. Mark off the streets, lives are saved.”

Mian also credited the DEA teams, USAO-DC litigators, and local and state partners for their work in investigating and removing “illegal drugs from this individual who was involved in violent activities.”

Asked whether she had a message for the LGBTQ community — statistically more vulnerable to substance use disorders than the general population — Pirro was direct about her commitment to equal justice.

“The only thing I can say to the LGBT community is that there is a level playing field here,” Pirro said. “Everybody gets the same justice. You have a problem, you have an issue, you come to me. I have a long history of fighting for equal rights for everyone. Everyone deserves dignity, everyone deserves protection, and everyone deserves justice — and you’re gonna get that from me.”

GLAA D.C., formerly known as the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, announced on June 22 its ratings for three of the four candidates running in the city’s July 15 Ward 8 D.C. Council special election, saying each of the three have records of support for the LGBTQ community.  

The election was called earlier this year when the Ward 8 seat became vacant after the Council voted unanimously to expel Ward 8 Council member Trayon White (D) following his arrest by the FBI on a federal bribery charge in August 2024.

White, who has denied any wrongdoing and was released while awaiting his trial scheduled for January 2026, is one of the four candidates running in the special election to regain his seat on the Council. Under D.C. law, he can legally run for office and serve again on the Council if he wins up until the time he is convicted of the criminal offense he is charged with.

While not mentioning White by name, in a statement accompanying its candidate ratings GLAA said it has a policy of not rating any candidates expelled or who resign from an elected position for ethics violations, including “malfeasance.”

The three candidates it rated – Sheila Bunn, Mike Austin, and Salim Adofo – are longtime Ward 8 community advocates who have been involved in local government affairs for many years and, according to LGBTQ activists who know them, have been supportive of LGBTQ rights. All three are running as Democrats.

White also has a record of supporting LGBTQ issues while serving on the Council since 2017.

GLAA rates candidates on a scale of -10, the lowest possible rating, to +10, its highest rating. Since it began candidate ratings in the 1970s it has based the ratings mostly on LGBTQ-related issues.

But in recent years, it has shifted gears to base the ratings mostly on non-LGBTQ specific issues, saying those issues — such as housing, healthcare, and a call for decriminalizing sex work — impact the LGBTQ community as well as all D.C. residents.

The following are the GLAA D.C. ratings for the three Ward 8 candidates it rated:

Sheila Bunn – 7.5

Mike Austin – 6.5

Salim Adofo – 4.5

Bunn is a former staff member for D.C. Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and has worked for former D.C. Mayor and later D.C. Council member Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7), a longtime strong supporter of the LGBTQ community.

Austin, an attorney, is a former chair of one of the Ward 8 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, served as chief of staff in the office of the D.C. Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, and worked on the staff of former Ward 7 Council member LaRuby May (D).

Adofo has served as a Ward 8 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner since 2018 and chair of his ANC since 2021. His campaign biographical information shows he  has been an advocate for affordable housing, improved health care and lower health costs in Ward 8. He is the only one of the Ward 8 special election candidates on the July 15 ballot to express support for LGBTQ rights on his campaign website.

“At the heart of our platform is a steadfast commitment to uplifting LGBTQ+ communities, ensuring that policy is shaped not just for them, but with them,” a statement on his website says.

As of early this week, White did not have a campaign website. He has won re-election for the Ward 8 Council seat in every election since 2017, including the November 2024 election following his August 2024 arrest.

The Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political group, which for many years has endorsed candidates running for public office in D.C., decided not to make an endorsement in the Ward 8 special election, according to the group’s president, Howard Garrett.

“We thought that this is best because this is a special election and in these unfamiliar times, we decided not to take a stand,” Garrett told the Washington Blade. But he said his group partnered with the Ward 8 Democrats organization in holding a candidate forum in which the Ward 8 candidates were asked questions “that related to our community.”

Longtime Ward 8 gay Democratic activist Phil Pannell, who is supporting Adofo, said he strongly feels GLAA’s 4.5 rating for Adofo does not reflect Adofo’s strong support for the LGBTQ community.

Fellow Ward 8 gay Democratic activist David Meadows said he is supporting Bunn, who he says also has a strong record of support for the LGBTQ community.

The Blade earlier this week asked each of the four Ward 8 candidates’ campaigns to provide a statement by the candidates explaining their position on LGBTQ issues. As of the end of the business day on June 24, the candidates had not yet responded. The Blade will report on those responses when they are received.   

The GLAA ratings and the group’s statement describing the responses to its questionnaire that each of the three candidates it rated submitted can be accessed here:  

The websites of the three candidates who have campaign websites, which provide full details of their positions and background, can be accessed here:

Sheila Bunn

Bunforward8.com

Mike Austin

Mikeaustin8.com

Salim Adofo

Salimforward8.com

As temperatures rise in Washington, so does the pressure on the D.C. government to pass a budget for the 2026 financial year.

The Washington Blade followed up with Heidi Ellis, coordinator of the DC LGBT Budget Coalition, to discuss progress made — and the steps still needed — to ensure Washington’s LGBTQ community remains a priority for the D.C. Council and Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office.

Asked about the current state of the budget, Ellis was clear: the dust hasn’t settled. The process is still unfolding. Still, she shared that the overall city budget has been cut.

“There was a large cut in the mayor’s budget for Financial Year 2026 — over a million dollars,” Ellis said. “We took a hit of over $6 million in this in the city due to the federal funding cuts.”

According to Ellis, the cuts are due in large part to declining local tax revenue and a Republican-controlled federal government that has shown little support for LGBTQ-specific funding.

“The biggest challenge is the city is in a different place financially,” Ellis said. “The city’s CFO has now had two years plus in a row of forecasts of lower revenue for the city in general, and then we had congressional interference when they cut a billion dollars out of our budget — that still has not been resolved on the federal level. That happened during the continuing resolution on the Hill to pass like their spending bill, which has not been resolved. The mayor had to essentially cut a billion dollars out of the FY 25 budget to make it balanced. That was huge, and then the city is looking at lower revenue over the next couple of years.”

Although the entire city faces challenges, Ellis said the intersectional needs of LGBTQ residents — especially those who are Black, brown, low-income, or otherwise marginalized — demand specific, equitable funding.

“Whatever issues the city has, whether it be housing instability, food insecurity, safety issues, they are always exacerbated when you think about it through the lens of queer people — specifically Black and brown queer folks and folks that are low to no income,” she said. “So the folks that are living at the margins of our community are always going to feel whatever is happening 10 times more. And this administration has brought in a lot of consternation and fear to the city.”

Still, despite the broader financial setbacks, there have been some “wins.”

Ellis named five of the 12 sitting council members who have stepped up to support the goals outlined by the LGBT Budget Coalition: Council Members Matthew Frumin, Christina Henderson, Brianne Nadeau, Zachary Parker, and Robert C. White, Jr.

Each of these members has offered support through their committee work — addressing areas from healthcare to homelessness.

Parker, the council’s only gay member, helped fight for expanded funding for the youth homelessness continuum. A 2024 study found that 40 percent of unhoused youth in D.C. identify as LGBTQ.

Frumin has advocated for additional funds for transgender workforce programs, the youth homelessness continuum, and the D.C. Department of Human Services, which provides critical support for low-income residents.

Henderson backed the LGBT Budget Coalition’s healthcare and HIV-related goals by pushing for expanded hours at the D.C. Health and Wellness Center.

“She’s actually recommending now that they be open on one week night and then two Saturdays a month,” Ellis said. “That’s a huge win, because that allows for more people to access that care.”

Nadeau championed continued funding for the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, which provides $1 million annually in grants to LGBTQ organizations. White advocated for sustaining support for trans workforce programs like Project LEAP, which connects gender-diverse residents with job coaches and employers to build long-term economic stability.

“So far I would say we’ve gotten about four out of the seven to eight things we asked for fulfilled,” Ellis explained. “We were able to get a good chunk of that back to restore some services — like permanent supportive housing and extended transitional housing.”

Ellis emphasized that the LGBT Budget Coalition’s success stems in part from community engagement and platforms like the Blade.

“We launched the letter writing campaign back in April that generated thousands of letters that went directly to the mayor and the council. It was literally folks just signing up and saying, ‘We support this,’ and it automatically created letters. It was a major organizing tool.”

“We did an op-ed in the Blade that ran both in the print and in the online version — that got a lot of traction. Our coalition members have been pushing out what the needs are through their social media and have been testifying before the council through the oversight hearings and the budget hearings. And remember — we just had WorldPride. We reminded them [council members], you all are coming out and waving the flag and taking photo ops for our community, you can’t do that in one breath and then take away our funding.”

Still, critical needs remain unmet — particularly around HIV healthcare funding.

“The HIV funding just continues to close the gap,” Ellis said. “That’s the one that it’s such a big gap that even with the great work of Council Member Henderson is not enough. She even highlighted in her committee report that she’s asking for the Committee of the Whole, which is the whole council, to supplement some of that funding — understanding just how much of a loss we took. The gap is still wide and needs additional funding.”

Beyond HIV-related services, Ellis noted several key areas that still require urgent attention in the final version of the budget. Among them: restoring the D.C. Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which provides housing stability for the city’s most vulnerable; reforming the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act to better support tenant-led housing solutions; and restoring funding for LGBTQ mental health services, which have faced significant cuts in recent years.

The coalition is also pushing for the continued support of LGBTQ+ services administered through the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, including a $450,000 allocation for the Violence Prevention and Response Team initiative. In addition, Ellis emphasized the need for full enforcement of the city’s Language Access Act — and for its expansion to ensure Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, making D.C. services more inclusive for all residents.

Ellis acknowledged the political climate may feel daunting, but pointed to the resilience of the LGBTQ community — both historically and today.

“It’s just a constant reminder that we have been here before,” Ellis said. “We had the Lavender Scare. We had Stonewall. We had the AIDS epidemic. This community has gone through peril, and it continues around me how resilient we are — and actually not just resilient for the sake of being resilient, but that we actually build. We don’t just survive, but we build. I would say that the city has taken a hit, and we’re all trying to figure out how best to move forward and not lose our values.”

She added that while the LGBT Budget Coalition is united in its platform, it does not claim to speak for every LGBTQ person in D.C.

“The coalition is a voice that is united because we wanted to make sure we walk in lockstep, but we do not represent all of the LGBTQ community. We know there’s many factions. We are multifaceted as a community, but we do have a wide range of folks represented in our coalition, and we do our best to advocate with a wider lens and also make sure that we’re thinking about the most marginalized folks in our community. I just wanted to clarify where we enter this process, and I would just say that we’re going to continue to fight. It’s Pride month. It’s crazy that we’re going back to some of these original arguments around humanity, and whether we’re worth this dollar amount, but that’s where we are. But we’re not giving up. So I would just encourage everybody not to give up and get involved where they can get involved.”

When asked how individuals can support the LGBT Budget Coalition’s goals, Ellis had a clear answer: speak up.

“I would just argue for folks to email their council members and call their council members to show up. Just letting them know that you support funding of key services for LGBTQ folks. You don’t have to be part of our coalition to do that. These issues intersect; housing is an issue for all, healthcare is an issue for all. We’re just asking for it to be equitable.”