One of the five girls convicted in the horrific stomping death of a Washington, D.C., homeless man received the maximum sentence possible for someone her age: imprisonment until age 21.
The 13-year-old girl, who was 12 at the time of the attack, will spend the next seven-plus years in a Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services facility. The homeless man’s family said the punishment is insufficient for such a heinous crime.
When he was attacked by the girls sometime after midnight in October 2023, the 64-year-old victim, Reggie Brown, had cancer, weighed only 110 pounds and had lost fingers on each of his hands because of lupus, Fox5 DC reported. The defendants said when they happened upon Brown, he was being beaten up by an unidentified man, who let them join in the beating.
Brown was repeatedly punched, kicked and stomped by the group. He was left lying on his back without his shoes and with his pants pulled down, investigators said. He died from blunt force trauma injuries.
Prosecutors said Brown had tried to run away from the gang but was cornered in an alley by the girls, who pulled him down from a chain fence he tried to scale and began beating him with his own belt and stomping his head into the pavement. The blows turned out to be fatal.
“It saddens me that these young girls could be so brutal and do something so severe,” Malda Brown, one of the victim’s sisters, said in court during sentencing. “I’m just grateful that the judge did give them the time that D.C. commits until to 21, so we are grateful for that. It’ll make my mom feel so much better once we get home to let her know that that did take place.”
Another of Brown’s sisters, Nasia Israel, said the girls are getting off easy.
“DYRS is letting these kids back out with no consequences, in and out the door and get slapped on the wrist and come back out and do the same thing again,” Israel said. “Committing more violent crimes? My brother didn’t deserve that. Nobody deserves that.”
Prosecutor Gabrielle LoGaglio requested the maximum sentence for the five girls, citing multiple arrests for shoplifting and robberies in Montgomery County. LoGaglio also mentioned the youth’s truancy issues, noting she missed so much school one year that she had to be re-enrolled.
When she was arrested in the Brown case in March, she was in a cast and on crutches. Police said she had been shot in the leg during an “attempted burglary” while staying with friends.
The 13-year-old, the youngest of the five girls charged, offered a brief apology to Brown’s family. She was arrested in late March and charged with second-degree murder.
“This is not like me,” she said. “I am so sorry.”
Malda Brown rejected the mea culpa, saying, “She didn’t give no remorse, no empathy or no sympathy.”
Brown’s family says they are still haunted by the lack of humanity shown by the teens. The girl sentenced Wednesday took selfies at the crime scene and taunted Brown as he bled out.
“Damn, you leakin’!” one shouted to cheers from the rest of the group.
Two of the girls had already pleaded guilty, with the oldest, 15, receiving three years for assault with a dangerous weapon. The remaining two will be sentenced by the end of the month.
The 15-year-old admitted they attacked Reggie Brown simply “because we were bored.” She said she knew he was dead after they pounded his head repeatedly.
Malda Brown said she believed the girls’ parents are also culpable.
“It’s so sad because they’re not raising their children, they’re letting their children be out all times of night,” she said. “What they need to be doing is hold these parents accountable and lock them up as well.”
