D.C. Man Guilty in Reporter's Slaying

Defense attorney Michael Starr attacked the testimony of both men.

Hamlin, he said, turned himself in because police were on to him. Hamlin needed to help himself, but his initial lies did not fool the detectives, Starr said. Only when Hamlin implicated Jordan and explained that his cousin had struck Rosenbaum with a pipe did the detectives believe him, Starr said. That's why Hamlin stuck with that account, Starr said, calling it a lie.

The drinking buddy was similarly opportunistic, Starr argued.

But one juror said afterward that the jury largely believed Hamlin and was convinced that Jordan played a role in the robbery.

The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Haines, introduced a trove of security camera surveillance footage that appeared to corroborate Hamlin's account.

The tapes showed Jordan and Hamlin soon after the robbery at an Exxon station on Connecticut Avenue NW, filling up Hamlin's Cadillac and using a credit card stolen from Rosenbaum. The tapes later showed them shopping in a CVS and a Safeway not far from their home in Southeast Washington, again using credit cards from Rosenbaum and from a woman they robbed in Silver Spring the same night.

The footage led to swift charges. About an hour after a clip showing Hamlin was broadcast on local newscasts -- with Hamlin's name visible on the work uniform he was wearing -- he went to police. He was interrogated and eventually arrested. A day later, Jordan went to police and was arrested.

Such quick detective work usually would have been lauded, but in this case the response by the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, D.C. police and Howard University Hospital was roundly condemned.

At the scene, Rosenbaum was misdiagnosed as an intoxicated man, leading dispatchers to send a basic care ambulance from a distant part of the city rather than an advanced care unit that was much closer. Other lapses followed, detailed in a blistering report issued by the D.C. inspector general's office.

Hamlin is to be sentenced Dec. 19. Voluntary sentencing guidelines suggest a 14- to 35-year sentence. Jordan will be sentenced Jan. 12.