A jury has convicted D.C. police officer Terence Sutton of second degree murder in the October 2020 death of Karon Hylton-Brown. They also found Sutton and his supervisor, Lieutenant Andrew Zabavsky, guilty of obstruction and conspiracy for trying to cover up the circumstances surrounding Hylton-Brown’s death.

In their verdict announced Wednesday, the jury found Sutton acted with reckless disregard for Hylton-Brown’s safety when he chased the 20-year-old in an unmarked police car two years ago.

The case is the first time in memory that a D.C. police officer is convicted — or even charged — for an on-duty murder; at the time Sutton was indicted, prosecutors told the Washington Post they could not recall any other such case.

The trial lasted eight weeks.

Two years ago, Sutton chased Hylton-Brown through D.C.’s Brightwood Park neighborhood in an unmarked police car, attempting to make a stop for reasons that have remained unclear — at the time, police said they attempted the stop because Hylton-Brown was not wearing a helmet. Later, the defense in Sutton’s case argued officers believed Hylton-Brown had possibly come to the area to commit an act of violence.

Metropolitan Police Department officers are prohibited from engaging in traffic pursuits except in extreme circumstances.

Hylton-Brown, who was driving in front of Sutton on a rented Revel scooter, died from his injuries after he turned his moped onto Kennedy Street during the chase and collided with an oncoming vehicle. Prosecutors argued that Sutton was the key link in the chain of events that caused Hylton-Brown’s death. They said Hylton-Brown would be alive if Sutton hadn’t chased him and accelerated behind him in the final alley before the collision.

Sutton and his supervisor, Lieutenant Andrew Zabavsky, were also charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice; prosecutors argued that they tried to cover up what had happened and concealed key information from D.C. police officials.

Defense attorneys for Sutton and Zabavsky maintained their clients’ innocence of all charges. They said Sutton was doing his job as a police officer when he decided to follow Hylton-Brown, because he had “reasonable suspicion” that Hylton-Brown could have had a gun or had a plan to commit a violent act that night. In his closing argument, Sutton’s attorney insisted that it was Hylton-Brown who was reckless when he decided to flee the police, and that he was driving while impaired– a postmortem toxicology report showed THC and oxycodone in his system.

And defense attorneys for both men said neither of them did anything improper in the aftermath of the crash. According to their attorneys, they did not impede investigations of the incident by MPD’s major crash unit (which investigates serious traffic crashes) and Internal Affairs Division (which investigates police misconduct).

Sutton’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment on the verdict on Wednesday. Zabavsky’s attorney said they planned to appeal the verdict.

Throughout the eight-week trial, attorneys on both sides called more than a dozen witnesses — including numerous current and retired D.C. police officers and supervisors, a friend of Hylton-Brown’s, experts on policing and crash reconstruction, the doctor and paramedic who treated Hylton-Brown, and more.

For the prosecution, some of the most damning testimony against Sutton ended up coming from the officers who were with him in the car that night. One testified that the pursuit was getting “ridiculous.” And some seemed to be unclear on the reason for the continued pursuit of Hylton-Brown through the streets and alleys of Brightwood Park.

However, testimony from MPD officers also proved crucial to the defense. Kathryn Pitt and Cory Novick, both police officers in the Fourth District who were with Sutton and Zabavsky at different points that day, helped lawyers build their argument that officers were concerned Hylton-Brown was in the neighborhood that night to retaliate after an argument earlier that day.

High-up MPD supervisors also testified in court for both sides. Captain Franklin Porter, who was the watch commander in charge of the Fourth District on the night of the chase and crash, offered testimony that helped the government build their obstruction case against both Sutton and Zabavsky.

Porter said he relied on Zabavsky to help him with his investigation that night, not knowing that he had actually been involved in parts of the pursuit, traveling behind Sutton in his marked police SUV — and he said he didn’t learn about the severity of Hylton-Brown’s injuries and the nature of the police chase that preceded it until hours after the crash. Initially, he said, what he heard over the radio only indicated to him that it was a regular traffic crash with injuries — something that happens all the time in the city.

On the defense side, Assistant MPD Chief Wilfredo Manlapaz, who runs the department’s Internal Affairs Division, testified about Sutton’s character. He described Sutton as a high-performing officer on a team that had successfully reduced crime in the Fourth District.

Through the case, the public also got a glimpse into Sutton’s disciplinary file, which included a reprimand for failing to properly notify dispatch about a police chase. But Manlapaz said nothing in Sutton’s disciplinary file changed his positive opinion of him.

And Michael Miller, a former major crash investigator with MPD, testified during his questioning by defense attorneys that both Sutton and Zabavsky handled their duties in the aftermath of the crash appropriately.

When the verdict was read on Wednesday evening, Karen Hylton, Karon Hylton-Brown’s mother, reacted loudly and was ordered out of the courtroom by U.S. Marshals and the judge. After a chaotic scene that continued in the hallway outside the courtroom, she was taken into U.S. Marshals custody. She will be held in an Alexandria detention center overnight, her lawyer tells DCist/WAMU.

Advocates who had pressed for accountability after Hylton-Brown’s death embraced and yelled in relief outside the courthouse after the verdict. But they also expressed mixed feelings.

“This doesn’t do justice for Karon’s family, because Karon’s not home for Christmas,” says Nee Nee Taylor, the co-conductor of Harriet’s Wildest Dreams. “But what it does do is accountability. Harriet’s Wildest Dreams don’t believe in cages. But until they can get something in place, this is what they have to do to make change in D.C.”

The second-degree murder charge carries a maximum of 40 years in prison. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum of five years, and the obstruction of justice charge a maximum of 20 years, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Both Sutton and Zabavsky will remain out of custody until their sentencing.

This story has been updated with comment from advocates, comment from Zabavsky’s attorney, additional details from the scene in the courtroom when the verdict came down, and the correct last name for Hylton-Brown’s mother, Karen Hylton.

Previously: Jury Begins Deliberations In Historic Murder, Obstruction Trial Of Two D.C. Police Officers
‘They Had Enough For A Stop’: Former MPD Sergeant Testifies In Defense Of Officer Charged With Second Degree Murder
‘He Was Pursuing That Moped’: MPD Captain Testifies Against Officers In Murder, Obstruction Trial
Historic Trial Begins For D.C. Police Officer Charged With Murder In The Death Of Karon Hylton-Brown
Karon Hylton-Brown’s Loved Ones Remember His Exuberant Spirit And Dreams For Fatherhood