Three men have been sentenced to prison for their involvement in the 2020 drive-by murder of a 17-year-old in Washington, D.C., according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. Trey Prillerman, 19, and Nelfy Hernandez, 20, both of Washington, D.C., along with Deandre Levy, 22, of Gaithersburg, Maryland were handed down their sentences by Judge Maribeth Raffinan.
Prillerman was given a 17-year jail term, Hernandez received 13 years, and Levy was sentenced to eight years behind bars. The tragic incident unfolded on August 10, 2020, when Taijhon Wyatt was shot and killed in an alley near 9th and Kennedy St., NW. Wyatt was walking with a group of friends when the assailants opened fire from a stolen vehicle.
The U.S. Attorney's Office stated that Hernandez and Levy, who were in the car driven by Prillerman, were responsible for the gunshots that took Wyatt’s life and injured another individual. Following the shooting, the three fled the scene in the stolen car, which was later found outside of Baltimore. The prosecution's case was backed by investigations conducted by the Metropolitan Police Department, along with the diligence of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rachel Forman and Dennis Clark.
In their plea deals last August, Prillerman and Hernandez admitted to second degree murder while armed, while Levy pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter while armed. Hernandez additionally pleaded guilty to a separate incident involving the assault of a DYRS guard. Officers discovered Wyatt suffering from gunshot wounds shortly after the shooting, but he died at the scene, marking another young life lost to relentless waves of gun violence flooding the streets of our nation’s capital.
