[Archived] Defendant Pleads Guilty to Second Degree Murder

For Immediate Release: September 8, 2016

On September 8, 2016, In Alexandria Circuit Court, George Edward McGee, a 22-year old resident of Capitol Heights, Maryland, pleaded guilty to the charge of Murder in the Second Degree with regards to the death of Melaku Abraha, a 68-year old City resident. Mr. Abraha was murdered on March 28, 2016.

The defendant was immediately sentenced to 30 years in prison, with 15 years of that sentence suspended for the period of 15 years and conditioned upon his uniform good behavior and his compliance with supervised probation for the period of 10 years upon his release.

Video evidence obtained by Alexandria police and eyewitness testimony established that the defendant encountered Abraha at a cash machine in the 400 block of King Street a little after 9:00 p.m. The defendant followed the victim, sometimes walking ahead of him, as the victim walked west on King. When the victim turned south onto South Alfred Street, the defendant approached him and punched him, causing the victim to fall to the ground and strike his head.

The defendant then stole the victim's wallet and ran west on Duke. He ran into the King Street Metro and jumped a turnstile. He took a train to the Capitol Heights Metro station, where he exited the system.

Commonwealth's Attorney Bryan Porter said: "By all accounts, the victim, Mr. Abraha, was a peaceful and loving person who is dearly missed by his family and friends. I hope that the arrest and guilty plea in this case brings some solace to those that loved him. My thoughts are prayers are with all those affected by this senseless tragedy, and I regret that it is not within my power to truly make this right."

Porter continued: "The evidence establishes that the defendant's intent was to rob Mr. Abraha, not kill him. However, even an unintentional homicide may be punished as murder if the death was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the defendant's intentional criminal act. Therefore, the defendant was convicted of murder, not manslaughter."

"I wish to highly commend the outstanding police work that brought this violent felon to justice. The Alexandria Police Department's Criminal Investigations Section was instrumental in making this case. The detectives' painstaking investigation allowed them to present my office with a very strong case based primarily on video evidence. I would like to publicly commend by name Detectives Bikeramjit Gill and Ryan Clinch for their professional and dedicated service. I would also like to thank the Metro Transit Police for their assistance in this investigation."

Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Cathryn Evans and Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Audra O'Brien prosecuted the matter. The defendant is incarcerated in the William G. Truesdale Alexandria Adult Detention Center pending his transfer to the Department of Corrections.