The Washington D.C. prosecutor’s office that targeted January 6 protesters, including a 71-year-old great-grandmother known as the “Praying Grandma,” decided to drop charges of kidnapping and murder against a young woman who carjacked a vehicle carrying a sick woman then crashed the car, resulting in the sick woman’s death.
Last week, Leslie Marie Gaines, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, was left in a Mazda SUV at MedStar Washington Hospital Center for a moment by her daughter, who went to get a wheelchair. Kayla Kenisha Brown, 22, then carjacked the car and drove off. Eighteen minutes later, Brown crashed into the offices of the U.S. attorney and attorney general for Washington, D.C.
Brown was detained at the site. Gaines was transported to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
“Police can’t account for the 19 minutes between the carjacking and the crash, saying they have no images of the SUV during that time,” NBC Washington reported, despite the fact that the area of the city in which Brown drove reportedly has a multitude of cameras from which video could be taken.
Brown was initially charged with felony murder, kidnapping, and carjacking. But then the murder and kidnapping charges were dropped, reportedly because the medical examiner has not ruled on what caused Gaines’ death. Adding kidnapping to the charge would result in more severe penalties against Brown.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated that the investigation is ongoing,” Fox5DC reported Friday, noting that the judge has ordered a “preliminary competency screening for Brown, with another hearing set for June 20.”
Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, whose office prosecuted the January 6 protesters, has stated about those protesters, “Much work has been done to hold members of the mob accountable for the crimes they committed.” He also opined, “We will never know all the weapons that were on the Capitol grounds because very few in the mob were actually arrested on Jan. 6.”
This year, on the third anniversary of the January 6 protests, President Biden boasted, “Since that day more than 1,200 people have been charged for assaulting the Capitol. More than 900 have been convicted or pleaded guilty, Collectively to date, they have been sentenced to more than 840 years in prison.”
