A 19-year-old Alexandria woman has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the death of a man who was struck by a train and later died last summer at the Potomac Yard Metro station.
Prosecutors allege that 40-year-old James Halley Lynt was trying to escape being attacked by then-18-year-old Jamayah Burch and her then-17-year-old girlfriend when he jumped from a Metro platform, walked across train tracks and was struck by a train as it left the station.
Burch’s attorney maintains that there’s no question her client was involved in a “chaotic confrontation,” but that the charge of involuntary manslaughter is an overreach.
The five-day jury trial started on Monday, with jurors ending the first day listening to the testimony of the station manager and a Metro Transit Police officer who responded to the incident. They also watched a 17-minute surveillance video showing Burch and her girlfriend walk into the station holding hands when Lynt bumped into them as he walked to the station’s fare gates.
The video shows Lynt followed closely by Burch and her girlfriend. After walking through the fare gate, Lynt turned around and shut it. The 17-year-old then jumped over the gate and Burch walked through another gate without paying and started to chase Lynt around the station. Lynt evaded them by putting a nearby portable safety barrier on the steps leading down to the train platform.
Lynt was then chased and followed into a Metro train and back to the platform where the teenagers were both recorded “physically striking the victim,” according to court records. After being chased off a train, Lynt jumped down from the platform, stepped over two electrified third rails and walked toward the front of a train. The train then moved forward and struck Lynt, who later died at George Washington University Hospital.
Surveillance footage then shows Burch and the 17-year-old take photos of Lynt with their phones and walk away from the station as first responders arrived.
The 17-year-old was charged as a juvenile with involuntary manslaughter and assault and battery. That case has been resolved, although Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter could not comment on its outcome.
Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Cathryn Evans and Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Antwoine Coleman, Jr. are prosecuting the case against Burch.
“This case is not about guilt by association,” Coleman told the jury. “It’s about responsibility through participation.”
Coleman said that Lynt jumping on the tracks was “the last in a series of increasingly desperate attempts to escape.”
Burch’s attorney, Sameera Ali, told the jury in her opening statement that Lynt “lost his life in a terrible way,” but that her client did not push, block or force Lynt onto the tracks.
“People can argue, people can act badly, people can make poor decisions in a frenzied moment,” Ali said. “But the law does not turn every bad decision into involuntary manslaughter. For involuntary manslaughter, the Commonwealth must prove negligence so serious that it shows a reckless disregard for human life. That’s a high line.”
Involuntary manslaughter is a Class 5 felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Assault and battery is a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and/or a $2,500 fine.
