Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Defendant Kidnapped Victim After Trying to Rob Her

            WASHINGTON –Ricky McNeil, 31 of Washington, D.C., has been found guilty by a jury, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, of one count of kidnapping while armed, one count of first-degree sexual abuse with aggravated circumstances and one count of robbery, in a July 2023 assault on a stranger, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Chief Pamela A. Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            McNeil was also found guilty of one count of assault with a dangerous weapon (knife), one count of possession of a prohibited weapon (knife), and one count of assault with significant bodily injury. The verdict was returned on December 11, 2024, following a trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The Honorable Michael O’Keefe presided over scheduled sentencing for February 14, 2025.  McNeil faces a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of release.

            According to the government’s evidence, on July 26, 2023, as the victim was walking past the defendant, a stranger to her, on Benning Rd, NE, he asked her for a cigarette. She told him she was going to the store and would buy him one. McNeil then snatched her purse off her arm and ran toward the door of his nearby apartment. When he was entering, the victim tried to grab her purse back from McNeil, at which point he grabbed her wrist, pulled her inside and barricaded the sole door to the apartment. When the victim ran to a nearby window and yelled for help, McNeil grabbed her, threw her down and began punching her. He then took the victim into another room, ordered her to disrobe and perform oral sex on him, threatening to give her a “smiley face” with a knife he was holding if she refused. When he had forced the act upon her, she immediately bit him. At that point, McNeil punched her so hard in the mouth, splitting open her lip, and continued beating her. When McNeil got distracted by a phone, the victim jumped out the second-story window to escape. She ran, partially clad, to a nearby McDonald’s where a good Samaritan let her borrow a cell phone to call 911. Police responded to the scene but McNeil had already fled.

            When a search warrant was executed the following morning, the victim’s clothing and shoes were recovered from inside McNeil’s apartment, as well as her blood and his.

            In October 2023, McNeil was arrested on a warrant in Tampa, FL, and extradited back to DC, where he has been held without bond. 

            This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

            The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Peter V. Taylor and Molly K. Smith of the Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Section.