At about 9 p.m. on October 23, 1995, 21-year-old Evgeny Mihailov was sitting with two friends on the steps of the Bulgarian Embassy at 22nd and R Streets Northwest in Washington. D.C. His father, Ambassador Vihar Mihailov, and the rest of his family had returned to Bulgaria in August, but Evgeny remained because he wanted to earn money for schooling.
Mihailov was with two friends, 17-year-old Velio Kitanov and 19-year-old Peter Enchev. Another friend, 19-year-old Jordan Petkov, was nearby. They noticed a gold or orange colored car drive by. About a half hour later, another Bulgarian, Paniot Ignatiev, who had arrived in the city earlier that day to do some repair work at the embassy, was returning from dinner when two Black men approached. One struck him in the head, causing Ignatiev to briefly lose consciousness. When he came to, one of the men was punching him. Ignatiev cried out to the youths on the embassy steps to ring the buzzer on the door for help.
Kitanov later said he saw two men beating Ignatiev. The taller man was wearing a dark, knee-length jacket and was holding a gun. As Ignatiev tried to crawl away, the shorter of the two men continued punching him, while the taller man confronted Mihailov and his two friends on the steps. He demanded money and Mihailov offered him a few dollars. The man grabbed Mihailov and demanded his leather jacket.
Kitanov urged Mihailov to turn over the jacket, but Mihailov tried to pull away, saying that the gun was not loaded. During the struggle a shot was fired. Mihailov screamed and started to run up the several steps leading to the embassy door. He was almost to the door when another shot was fired, striking Mihailov in the back. The shooter then fled without the jacket. The other man then fled as well, and Ignatiev ran inside the embassy. He noticed later that the clasp to his watch was bent.
Petkov was walking toward the embassy when he heard the gunfire. He saw two men, one with a long black jacket running toward the same gold-colored car he had seen earlier. He saw the two men get into the car and the car sped off.
Mihailov was taken to the George Washington University Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9:40 p.m. A 38-caliber slug was recovered from his body during an autopsy.
Mary Sherman Willis, a freelance writer who lived about half a block from the embassy on 22nd Street, told police she heard gunfire and looked out her window. She said she saw two men run up to a gold Chevrolet, get into the back seat, and the car took off.
About an hour after the shooting, Kitanov, Enchev and Ignatiev were taken to a showup of three men who had been stopped by the police about a block away from the embassy. Kitanov and Ignatiev did not recognize the men as being involved. Enchev said he had not gotten a good look at either of the two assailants.
The following day, Ralph Williams contacted Mike Lucia, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent for whom Williams had previously worked as a paid informant. Williams said he had learned of the shooting at the embassy on the news and asked if there was a reward for information. Lucia put Williams in touch with District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Sergeant Joseph McCann.
Williams told McCann on the night of the shooting, he was playing cards with Wayne Sellers and Tony Parrott at a boarding house owned by a man he knew only as “Greasy” in Capitol Heights, Maryland, about 11 miles from the embassy. Williams said that at about 11 p.m., three men entered the boarding house. He identified them as Shon Hancock, 27-year-old Maurice Sykes, and Gary Washington, who he said was wearing a knee-length black leather jacket.
Williams said that Washington was talking about a “bust” of “this [obscenity] up on 16 th Street, over a jacket.” According to Williams, Washington said he was trying to get a youth who was running toward a door, but then a buzzer went off, and he panicked and shot him. Williams said that Sykes said he was “beating this guy up for a watch,” shadow-boxing as he spoke. Williams said that Hancock said he was in the car waiting for them.
According to Williams, Washington offered his leather jacket for sale, and when he tried it on, he found a rusted .38-caliber revolver in the pocket. He said he handed the gun to Washington, who removed two bullets from it. Williams told McCann that he didn’t believe them until the next day when he learned about the embassy shooting.
On October 27, 1995, Kitanov and Enchev were shown a photographic lineup that included Washington’s photograph. They did not identify anyone as being involved.
On October 28, Williams called Agent Lucia and said that he saw a gold-colored Chevrolet Caprice parked in the 900 block of Balboa Avenue in Capitol Heights. McCann and another detective, Todd Williams, then picked up Kitanov and Willis and drove them in separate cars to Balboa Avenue.
Kitanov did not recognize any car, but on the second time around the block, he told Detective McCann to “drive fast” because he believed he saw the gunman sitting in a car. Meanwhile, as Willis drove down Balboa Avenue with Detective Williams, she saw a car that resembled the car she saw the night of the crime.
On November 2, police arrested Sykes in Capitol Heights. Two days later, on November 4, 1995, Hancock was spotted driving a gold-colored Chevrolet Caprice. Police stopped the car in a parking lot and arrested Hancock as well as Washington, who was a passenger in the car.
On December 14, 1995, two lineups were held, one containing Washington and the other containing Sykes. Enchev and Willis did not make any identification. Willis identified a filler in the lineup containing Sykes.
Kitanov identified Washington as the gunman. He also identified a filler in the lineup containing Sykes. Ignatiev did not identify Washington, but he did identify Sykes, saying he was “absolutely sure” that Sykes was his attacker.
On May 2, 1996, Parrott and Sellers testified before a grand jury.
Parrott told the grand jury that he had attended high school with Washington, Sykes, and Hancock in Capitol Heights. He said he was not at the boarding house in Capitol Heights on the night of the shooting. He denied that Sykes or Washington or Hancock ever told him anything about the shooting. He said he never saw Washington with a gun. He said he thought that Hancock had a big, rust-colored, old car. He said he had not spoken with Sykes “in years” but had talked with Williams the day before appearing for his grand jury testimony. Parrott said that he was with his girlfriend on the night of the shooting and attended a movie. He said that the movie was “Sudden Death” and that his girlfriend paid for the tickets, but expressed some uncertainty. At one point, Parrott said he wasn’t sure of the exact date he went to the movie, but steadfastly maintained that he was not at the boarding house on October 23, the night of the shooting.
Sellers also had known Washington, Hancock and Sykes for a number of years. He recalled buying a long, black leather coat from Washington at the boarding house, but did not remember when he bought it. He said Parrott was present, but Sykes was not when he bought the coat. Sellers said he gave the coat to a homeless man about two weeks after he bought it. He said he had not heard anything about the murder from Sykes, Hancock or
Washington. Sellers said he did not remember where he was on the night of the crime.
On May 8, 1996, Washington, Hancock and Sykes were charged with murder, attempted armed robbery, conspiracy, and illegal use of and possession of a firearm. The conspiracy charge was dismissed prior to trial.
On April 7, 1997, two days before their trial was scheduled to begin in District of Columbia Superior Court, the prosecution provided a letter to the defense attorneys for the men revealing that it would be calling Williams to testify about the alleged statements made at the boarding house. The prosecution contended that the statements attributed to Washington were applicable to Sykes as “adoptive admissions.” The prosecution also revealed that Williams said that Parrott and Sellers were present at the time, but that both men had denied they were present.
Sykes’s lawyer objected, saying the information should have been turned over long ago as required by the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brady v. Maryland because it was exculpatory. The prosecution contended it was not exculpatory, but was impeaching of Williams, the informant. The prosecution said it had not revealed the information previously to “protect the identity and safety and security” of Williams. Sykes’s lawyer asked that Sykes be released on bond until Parrott was placed under subpoena and made available to the defense.
The prosecution said that it had tried to subpoena Parrott, but was unsuccessful because he “deals drugs and he’s evading everybody.”
At the time, the prosecution said that Sellers had been placed under writ and was in custody; therefore, he would be available for the trial. The prosecution also said it was continuing to look for Parrott.
The trial judge, Reggie Walton, denied defense motions to dismiss the case. He also did not order the government to turn over the grand jury testimony of Sellers and Parrott, saying that if a witness was available, “all the government need [to] do is make the witness available and need not make available any prior statements that that person made. Once that person is made available, I think they have fulfilled their Brady obligations.” The judge said that if it became clear that the witnesses were not going to be available for live testimony, he would then require the prosecution to disclose the grand jury transcripts.
On April 9, the first day of trial, the prosecution said that Parrott was not under subpoena and could not be found; Parrott’s grand jury testimony was therefore disclosed to the defense. The defense contended that Parrott’s identity should have been disclosed long before. Judge Walton said he was not prepared to dismiss the case or strike Williams as a witness because those were “extreme remedies in a very serious case.”
Sykes’s defense asked for an assurance that Sellers “is under government writ to be here.” The prosecutor replied, “That’s correct.”
On April 23, however, the prosecution disclosed that Sellers had been released by
“mistake” from the District of Columbia Jail officials.
The case against Sykes relied almost solely on the testimony of Williams and testimony that Ignatiev had identified Sykes in the lineup prior to the trial. When Ignatiev was called to testify, he was unable to identify Sykes in the courtroom.
Williams testified as he did to the grand jury about Washington, Hancock, and Sykes coming to the boarding house and talking about the crime. He admitted that he had prior convictions for conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute and for possession of cocaine. He also acknowledged that he had pled guilty to cocaine possession charges subsequent to his cooperation in the case against Sykes, Washington, and Hancock. He said he had not yet been sentenced. He also said that he had been a drug dealer from 1989 to 1992, earning as much as $7,000 a week.
Williams also said he had been paid $3,500 by the government for his cooperation in the case, of which $2,100 was for relocation. He conceded that he still lived in Capitol Heights, but claimed he was “in the process” of moving out.
On April 23, the tenth day of the trial, the prosecution reported that Sellers had been accidentally released and was no longer available. At that point, the prosecution turned over Sellers’s grand jury testimony to the defense.
Sykes’s brother, Michael Sykes, and his sister, Michelle McCoy, testified that their great-grandmother had died in North Carolina on October 21, 1995, and that all three of them left for North Carolina about 7 p.m. on October 23, two hours before the crime. They testified that they stayed with their parents there. The funeral was on October 25, and they returned afterward. A copy of the funeral program was entered into evidence.
On April 29, 1997, just before closing arguments were to begin, after a heated debate about what the defense could use from the grand jury testimony, Judge Walton ruled that the defense could only present those portions of the testimony indicating that neither Sellers nor Parrott had spoken to any of the defendants about the embassy shooting.
On May 6, 1997, the jury convicted Sykes of first-degree murder, attempted armed robbery, illegal use of a weapon, and illegal possession of a weapon. Washington was convicted of similar charges. A mistrial was declared in Hancock’s case because the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
Washington was sentenced to 50 years to life prison. He died while his case was being appealed. Sykes was sentenced to 35 years to life in prison. The case against Hancock was later dismissed.
In April 2006, nearly two years after Sykes’s appeal had been argued, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals set aside his convictions and ordered a new trial.
The court ruled that the prosecution had violated the Brady rule by its failure to disclose the grand jury transcripts of Parrott and Sellers until the last minute.
The appeals court ruled: “The grand jury testimony of both Mr. Sellers and Mr. Parrott shows that they denied hearing a discussion of the Bulgarian Embassy events at the Capitol Heights boarding house on the evening of the crimes, where Mr. Sykes and his co-defendants allegedly were present. Mr. Parrott’s grand jury testimony stated that Mr. Sykes and his co-defendants were not at the boarding house on the night of the murder…and therefore the statements attributed to the three men by Mr. Williams, a key government witness…could not be true.”
“And, although in his grand jury testimony Mr. Sellers placed Mr. Washington at the boarding house at some later time when he bought Mr. Washington’s leather jacket, he said that Mr. Sykes was not present on that occasion,” the court said. “Therefore his account did not confirm Mr. Williams’[s] testimony…Hence, under our precedents, the grand jury testimony of Mr. Parrott and Mr. Sellers should have been disclosed to the defense at an earlier point in time, whether it was considered to be potentially exculpatory information or favorable impeaching evidence.”
The court concluded that if Parrott or Sellers or both had testified “in person” before the jury, there was “a reasonable probability” that the jury would have viewed Williams’s testimony “in a different light and as significantly less probative…” And although the prosecution lost its opportunity to cross-examine Parrott and Sellers because they did not testify, “[I]t was Mr. Sykes’[s] constitutional right to present a complete defense that was infringed.”
On July 10, 2006, the prosecution dismissed the charges and Sykes was released.
Sykes later filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking to obtain compensation for his wrongful conviction. In March 2011, the lawsuit was dismissed.
Sykes died in December 2015. He was 47 years old.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 11-19-2025
