A backpack robbery near a Northeast D.C. Metro station ended with a 17-year-old dead and, prosecutors now say, closed the book on a months-long spree of armed sexual assaults across the city. Javier Montgomery, 18, of Washington, D.C., has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder while armed in the October 3, 2025 shooting death of Jermaine Durbin, along with sexual abuse, attempted sexual abuse, and robbery charges tied to three other victims.
According to court records released by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia on Friday, Montgomery's guilty plea resolved two separate D.C. Superior Court criminal dockets, case numbers 2025 CF1 016197 and 2025 CF1 016196. Prosecutors say Durbin was robbed at gunpoint near the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station entrance in Northeast Washington, and that he followed Montgomery in an attempt to recover his stolen backpack before Montgomery shot and killed him on the 600 block of Rhode Island Avenue NE, as reported by Daily Voice. MPD Fifth District officers found Durbin unconscious and unresponsive with a gunshot wound, and D.C. Fire and EMS personnel pronounced him dead at the scene.
A Robbery Allegedly Sparked by a Backpack
Court filings cited by DC Witness on February 23 revealed that Montgomery allegedly targeted Durbin's backpack because a witness reported it contained marijuana. D.C. Superior Court documents cited by the outlet show Durbin died from a single gunshot wound to his face during the confrontation. Witness statements filed in court also indicated that after the shooting, Montgomery called a former partner and confessed to shooting someone, describing the killing as an accident that “wasn't supposed to happen,” per the same filings.
Montgomery was arrested on November 28, 2025, by members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force and initially charged under an arrest warrant with first-degree felony murder while armed, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. He has remained in custody since that arrest. During a February 20 hearing, D.C. Superior Court Judge Danya Dayson granted a medical alert motion filed by defense attorney Carrie Weletz requesting mental health treatment for Montgomery while in custody, the DC Witness report noted.
Three Armed Assaults Before the Killing
Federal prosecutor statements released Friday established that the sexual assault charges against Montgomery stemmed from three separate armed encounters on May 23, September 6, and September 28, 2025 — a pattern of escalating violence in the months leading up to Durbin's murder. Per government evidence, Montgomery slapped one victim on the buttocks before demanding further sexual contact at gunpoint on May 23. Prosecutors say he groped another victim's chest and crotch at gunpoint on September 6, and that on September 28 he forced a third victim to perform oral sex on him at gunpoint.
Montgomery pleaded guilty to third-degree sexual abuse, first-degree sexual abuse while armed, attempted third-degree sexual abuse, robbery, and second-degree murder while armed. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro announced the guilty plea and described Montgomery's violence as a pattern that terrorized multiple victims and killed Durbin, calling his actions predatory, deliberate, and devastating.
How the Sentence Adds Up
The plea agreement structures concurrent sentences of one to three years for third-degree sexual abuse and one-and-a-half to five years for robbery, while requiring consecutive sentencing for the murder, armed sexual abuse, and attempted sexual abuse counts to reach a combined range of 26 to 40 years. Within that structure, the agreement sets a 12-to-18-year range for the second-degree murder while armed count and a consecutive 12-to-15-year range for first-degree sexual abuse while armed. Under D.C. law, second-degree murder while armed carries a statutory maximum of up to 40 years, with D.C. Voluntary Sentencing Guidelines recommending 12 to 24 years for that count alone, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, meaning the negotiated murder range falls within established guidelines.
Montgomery is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday, January 15, 2027. In the days after the shooting last October, Durbin's grandmother, Zenobia Harris, organized a public GoFundMe campaign to help his mother, Carlena Durbin, cover funeral costs for the Northeast D.C. teenager.
