Photo by RISS311
The murder of H Street deli owner June Lim last year shocked the Northeast D.C. neighborhood. Now residents who knew her are being asked to submit impact statements before the man who pleaded guilty to her murder is sentenced.
Lim was killed during a robbery attempt in June 2012. Many gathered outside Grace Deli at the corner of H St. and 7 St. NE, which was covered in tributes, flowers and stuffed animals, to share memories about the 65-year-old at a vigil.
Suspect Steven Williams pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in April and will be sentenced later this month. Williams basically gave away his guilt. After he was brought into a police station on a warrant for a parole violation, Williams could not stop looking at Lim’s case file and said to himself when officers left the room, “That’s a wrap, big boy. That’s a wrap, big boy.” DNA later connected him to the scene.
ANC Commissioner Mark Kazmierczak has asked residents impacted by the murder to write a statement to the U.S. Attorney’s Office before Williams is sentenced.
“June Lim was a a staple of the community and a friendly, familiar face to many,” Kazmierczak said in a statement to residents. “Her family was left in hardship as she was the sole income earner. The attack was brutal and unnecessary, and her murderer needs to be put away for as long as possible.”
“As a first-term ANC commissioner, I was not familiar with community impact statements until now,” Kazmierczak said in an email to DCist. “The way I see it, community impact statements allow the details of a crime to be put in the context of the community that it disrupted.”
He continued, “It is important that residents write these statements because they are the ones who see every day the lasting damage that was done as a result of the crime. The memorial that was left at June’s shop was gut-wrenching to anyone walking past (certainly to me), and it clearly demonstrated the love that the neighborhood had for her. This is the kind of devastation to a community that needs to be made clear to a judge at sentencing, and community impact statements are how we do that.”
Lim’s son Peter previously asked “friends, family, acquaintances and members of the community” to submit a letter to the judge detailing “what she meant to you, how her loss has affected you/the community, how life has changed for you/the community, your memories of her, the kind of person she was, and anything else you would like to include.”
Statements are due Friday. Information about how to write a statement can be found here.
