By Henri E. Cauvin and Allison Klein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 20, 2006; B01
After they were arrested, the two men charged with participating in a deadly robbery this month in Georgetown admitted playing roles in two other recent armed robberies in the District, an investigator testified yesterday in D.C. Superior Court.
A credit card stolen in one of those earlier robberies was found with the discarded purse of the woman who was robbed July 9 in Georgetown and whose companion was killed in the holdup, said the investigator, D.C. homicide detective Douglas Carlson.
Alan Senitt, a 27-year-old British activist, and the woman were returning from a movie about 2:30 a.m. when they were confronted by three people in the driveway of a Q Street NW home, Carlson said.
Armed with what police think was a pellet gun, one of the attackers pulled the woman away from Senitt, groped her and demanded her valuables. The other two assailants accosted Senitt, who tried to break free to aid his friend. But he could not escape the robbers, Carlson testified, and one stabbed him and slit his throat.
Police have been exploring the possibility that the same people charged with murder in the killing in Georgetown -- Christopher Piper, Jeffrey Rice, Olivia Miles and a 15-year-old -- might be responsible for earlier robberies in the area. Miles is accused of driving the getaway car in Senitt's killing.
The testimony, during a preliminary hearing for Piper, 25, and Rice, 23, showed how police are making a possible connection between the crimes.
Investigators had the street address of three of the robbery suspects before Senitt's killing, and some neighbors have said the lead was not pursued aggressively.
New details provided yesterday in court and from a law enforcement official suggest that the trail -- which began with an online purchase with a stolen credit card -- might not have been so clear. Investigators were thrown off for a while by an apparently misaddressed shipment. The official was interviewed on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
The purchase, using a card stolen in a June 11 holdup, was to be sent to the same Southeast Washington apartment building where Piper and Rice live, Carlson said. But the package wasn't addressed to their apartment, the detective said. Instead, it was addressed to another apartment in the building, on Robinson Place SE, he said.
An occupant of that apartment was placed under investigation, a law enforcement official said, while police and prosecutors attempted to build a case against him. Authorities planned to show the June 11 victim a photo spread to see whether she could identify him.
But then, the official said, another piece of evidence came in: surveillance footage from a convenience store where the credit card of another robbery victim was used. When police looked at the image, about a week before Senitt was killed, they did not see the person from Robinson Place whom they had been investigating, the official said.
They saw three people they didn't know at the time: Piper, Rice and Miles. Something wasn't right, so the plans for the photo spread were scrapped.
What else was known then and what happened next in the investigation are unclear.
But soon after Senitt was killed, his companion provided a description of the suspects -- and investigators saw similarities with the earlier crimes. Detectives from the 2nd District, which had been investigating the robberies, provided homicide detectives with the Robinson Place address and two first names -- Chris and Jeff -- Carlson testified. How the investigators got those names, and when, remains unclear.
But coupled with the description of the attackers by the woman assaulted July 9, the names led police to Piper and Rice. They were among a number of people hanging out in front of the building about 4 a.m. July 9 when detectives Elbert Griffin and Michael Fulton arrived.
Griffin and Fulton found Piper first, and after asking a few questions, they had Senitt's companion brought to the scene so she could look at Piper. Initially, she said Piper was similar to, but not as stocky as, the man who attacked her. But after seeing him during a second drive-by, after he had put on a shirt, she said she was 95 percent sure he was her attacker. Eventually, she said she was "sure" it was him, Carlson said.
While Piper was being taken to a police station to be interviewed, the detectives found Rice. They began asking him a few questions and had the woman in the July 9 attack brought around in a police car to see whether she recognized him as well.
Rice blew up, Carlson said, approaching the car's tinted windows and shouting: "She can't identify me. She can't identify me."
The woman told the detectives that he looked -- and acted -- like one of the men who had accosted Senitt, and later she said she was 90 percent sure, Carlson said.
Police said this type of suspect identification is not unusual in such cases.
While at the apartment building, Griffin saw Rice sneaking stuff into his pockets. When the detective searched Rice, he found the woman's cellphone and Senitt's identification case and arrested Rice, Carlson testified.
Judge Rhonda Reid Winston ordered Piper and Rice held without bond after arguments from the prosecutor and defense attorneys.