Washington D.C. found itself at the tail-end of a protracted legal drama as two cousins, Eugene Burns and Tyre Allen, received their sentences for grave crimes that entwined murder and conspiracy. As reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, 37 years will now confine Eugene Burns, whose transgressions include the slaying of his friend, Onyekachi Emmanuel Osuchukwu, back in 2015 and the ill-conceived plot to sway a witness in the ensuing legal battle.
Tyre Allen, the younger of the two at 24, was handed a three-year sentence. This legal bookend unfolded in D.C.'s Superior Court where Judge Marisa Demeo deliberated over their fate, Burns had been previously convicted in 2017 for the murder, and although that conviction got overturned in appeal, he, along with Allen, didn't cease their offshore from justice, they indeed plotted and executed obstruction by tampering with a witness.
The weight of evidence brought by the government was considerable. Burns lured Osuchukwu to his mother's apartment under deceitful pretenses, where he then shot him four times, resulting in death, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office. The ordeal didn't end there, with the cousins conspiring to obstruct justice in 2020 by cajoling a witness to recant testimony through a forged affidavit.
In the aftermath, commendations were issued by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., and MPD Chief Pamela Smith, who highlighted the investigative work that spanned from the local Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch to the federal tiers of the FBI and ATF, as well as the prosecutorial efforts of both former and current assistant U.S. Attorneys.
