2 found guilty for 2017 kidnappings, murders, DC US Attorney’s Office says

WASHINGTON ( DC News Now ) — A federal jury found two men guilty in the armed kidnappings and brutal revenge murders of two people in 2017, the United States Attorney’s Office of the District of Columbia announced on Tuesday.

The jury found 26-year-old Malique Lewis, aka “Freak,” and 28-year-old Marcel Vines, aka “Baby Boy,” guilty of the armed kidnapping which led to the killings of, Armani Nico Coles and Kerrice Lewis (of no relation to the defendant).

The verdict, handed up on Aug. 19, followed a four-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

According to evidence presented at trial, Malique Lewis and Vines conspired with a third co-defendant to kidnap and kill Coles and Kerrice Lewis on Dec. 28, 2017, out of a desire for revenge.

Earlier that day, the victims’ friend shot and killed Ronzay Green, who was a friend of Malique and Marcel. The defendants knew who killed Green and decided to travel across the city to his neighborhood, looking for him, according to the Attorney’s Office.

When they arrived, they saw Kerrice Lewis, who they recognized as a friend of the man who killed Green. They began following her, and at around 3 p.m., the men kidnapped Kerrice in the parking lot of an AutoZone in the 900 block of Longfellow St., Northwest, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

Armed with an assault rifle and a .45 caliber firearm, Malique Lewis and Vines held Kerrice Lewis in the backseat of her car while they drove her across the city with the intent that she would lure the man who killed Green to them.

When the defendants were unsuccessful, they used the victim’s phone to lure Nico Coles to a location near First and Kennedy Streets Northwest, with the hopes that Coles could lead them to the man who killed Green. Around 6 p.m., authorities said they kidnapped Coles and forced him into the backseat of Kerrice Lewis’s car, forcing her into the trunk.

The defendants headed toward the Clay Terrace neighborhood with the kidnapped victims in the car. When they encountered traffic along the way on I-295 in Maryland, they shot Coles twice and pushed him onto the highway, leaving him seriously injured on the shoulder of the interstate as they fled into D.C, according to the attorney’s office.

About an hour later, the pair drove to an alley behind the 800 block of Adrian St., Southeast, with Kerrice Lewis still in the trunk. Law enforcement said the defendants then opened the trunk and shot Kerrice Lewis at least 13 times before setting her and the car on fire and fleeing the scene.

Law enforcement traced the evidence of the brutal killings to the defendants through fingerprint analysis, analysis of the weapons used and surveillance footage of Malique Lewis driving Coles’s missing car at a McDonald’s drive-through the night after the murders.

Authorities also recovered texts from Malique Lewis bragging about the murders.

Officials arrested Malique Lewis and Vines on Jan. 5, 2018, on unrelated charges. Shortly after, the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office charged Malique Lewis with the murder of Coles.

Later that year, the D.C. Superior Court charged both men with both of the murders. The federal court took the case in May 2019, and both men have been in custody since their initial arrest.

The U.S. District Court will schedule sentencing for Malique Lewis and Vines in the coming days. They both face two consecutive mandatory minimum sentences of life imprisonment, according to the attorney’s office.

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