A man who allegedly killed his mother in her Maryland apartment last weekend has “essentially confessed” to committing three long-unsolved homicides in the District, a top D.C. police official said Friday. But authorities said they have not determined whether the evidence against him is strong enough to warrant prosecution in the three cold cases.
John F. Carrington, 53, was taken into custody Wednesday in D.C. for being a “fugitive from justice” in Prince George’s County, where authorities had obtained an arrest warrant charging him with murder in the death of his 71-year-old mother, Johnetta Wormley. She was found dead Sunday in her Temple Hills apartment.
While being interviewed by Prince George’s and D.C. police after his arrest, Carrington began talking about three homicides in the District, in 1992, 2008 and 2010, according to Assistant Chief Leslie Parsons, head of the D.C. police Investigative Services Bureau. In an interview Friday, Parsons said Carrington “provided details only someone involved in the crimes would know,” because the details have not been made public.
D.C. homicide detectives decided to make a “probable cause” arrest, which occurs when police detain a suspect before the U.S. attorney’s office concludes that the evidence is strong enough to justify prosecution. In typical cases, the office finds that the evidence is sufficient. But that has not happened with Carrington.
[After 28 years, police closed in on their murder suspect. Now he’s dead.]
After D.C. police said in a news release Thursday that Carrington had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony murder in the three old homicides, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement Friday that it “is working with [police] on the investigation and has not filed charges to date.” The office said authorities are in the process of extraditing Carrington to Maryland.
It could not be determined whether he has a lawyer in Maryland or the District.
Parsons praised the “excellent work” of D.C. homicide detectives, saying they “never give up on a case.” He said, “We have probable cause to believe that these crimes . . . were committed by this offender.” He declined to elaborate on what details Carrington allegedly shared about the three D.C. killings.
In Prince George’s, meanwhile, a police affidavit filed in court describes what led to Carrington’s arrest on a first-degree murder charge in his mother’s death.
About 4:30 p.m. last Saturday, before Wormley’s body was found, Carrington and a female acquaintance were together in the mother’s car, the affidavit says. It says the woman later told county police that Carrington said he had stolen the car from his mother, who was out of town.
While they were in the car, Carrington stabbed her several times, the woman said. She was interviewed by Prince George’s detectives in a hospital. Police have since obtained an arrest warrant for Carrington in the stabbing.
The next day, Sunday, another acquaintance of Carrington’s saw him in the District shortly before 11 a.m., the affidavit says. Carrington allegedly told the man: “I think I killed my mother. I choked her, and stabbed [the woman in the car].” The man called a friend of Carrington’s family to alert her, and that person notified police.
[Man charged with murder in slaying of mother is accused of killing 3 others, police say]
Shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday, when officers arrived at Wormley’s apartment in the 2900 block of Brinkley Road, they found her face down on her bedroom floor, the affidavit says. It says the apartment appeared to have been ransacked.
Hours later, at 3:36 a.m. Monday, detectives obtained an arrest warrant charging Carrington with first-degree murder. He was arrested Wednesday in Southeast Washington by members of the Capitol Area Regional Fugitive Task Force, made up of federal, state and local law enforcement officers in the D.C. area.
Carrington had been “a person of interest” in one of three D.C. homicides cases even before he allegedly killed his mother, according to Parsons, who declined to say which case. While being questioned about his mother’s death, Carrington began talking about the case in which he is a person of interest, plus two others, Parsons said.
In the first of the three cold cases in D.C., Charles Boulware, 29, was found fatally stabbed on Aug. 30, 1992, in the unit block of T Street NW. Parsons said Boulware was killed during an argument. He said investigators do not know whether and he and Carrington were acquainted.
At the time, Carrington had been arrested in the District for relatively minor drug offenses at least five times since 1988, according to court records. Some of the cases were dismissed. In two cases, he was sentenced to jail, the records show.
In early October 1992, less than two months after Boulware’s killing, Carrington was arrested by D.C. police in a nonfatal shooting. Convicted of two felonies, he was sentenced to two to 10 years in prison on one charge and a consecutive term of five to 15 years on the other. He was paroled in 2007, court records indicate.
[Federal prosecutors help take on unsolved homicides in Baltimore and Prince George’s County]
The second cold-case homicide occurred about a year later, on March 15, 2008. Police were called to North Capitol and Evarts streets NE and found Reginald Gaither, 42, in a vehicle, dead from a gunshot wound. Parsons said Gaither and Carrington knew each other and had been involved in a dispute.
A few years later, on Dec. 10, 2010, James Campbell, 25, was fatally shot in the 2900 block of Southern Avenue SE. Parsons said Campbell was a robbery victim. He said police do not know whether Carrington and Campbell were acquainted.
Charron Carter, who identified Wormley as her former stepmother, said she is “saddened” about her death and declined to comment further.
A grandmother of James Campbell declined to comment when reached Friday. Family for other victims and Carrington could not be reached.
On Thursday, the day after he was arrested, Carrington told a D.C. Superior Court judge that he would not contest extradition to Maryland.
Alice Crites and Katie Mettler contributed to this report.
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