Washington D.C. Man Convicted At Trial Of Murdering Best Friend
Monday, November 4, 2024, 6:00 A.M. ET. 2 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,
WASHINGTON, DC.- On Thursday, October 24, 2024, following a five-week trial before D.C. Superior Court Judge Marisa Demeo, a jury found Eugene Burns, 32, of Washington D.C., guilty on the charges of first-degree Murder While Armed; Possession of a Firearm During a Crime of Violence; and Carrying a Handgun Without a Permit.
On Monday, October 28, 2024, following separate deliberations, the jury additionally found Burns and his co-defendant Tyre Allen guilty on the charges of Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice; and obstruction of Justice by Witness Intimidation or Persuasion.
Burns Convicted With Cousin On Other Counts
Following the jury’s finding of guilt, Judge Demeo accepted the verdicts and filed them with the court and scheduled sentencing for January 31, 2025, at which time Burns faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, and Allen faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
   According to U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith, in 2017, Burns was convicted by a jury of murdering the victim, but the conviction was overturned on appeal in 2020. Following the reversal, Burns and co-defendant Tyre Allen, Burns’s cousin, conspired to and did obstruct justice by corruptly influencing a witness in the original murder case into signing a false affidavit in October 2020, recanting the witness’s prior grand jury testimony that incriminated Burns in the murder.
The case stems from an investigation that began on November 14, 2015, when Burns lured his best friend, Onyekachi Emmanuel Osuchukwu, III, to Burns’s mother’s apartment on the 2900 Block of 2nd Street in Southeast, D.C. Once inside the apartment, Burns shot the victim four times, killing him. Burns then fled the apartment but returned the next day with family members, falsely reporting to police that they had just found the victim’s body. Evidence presented at trial established that Burns had been planning to murder the victim for several days.
