The defense attorney for a former church deacon accused of raping and stabbing to death a French-woman in a Glover Park town home attacked the victim’s morals during closing arguments Wednesday, calling her a “loose woman” for birthing six children and traveling independently of her husband.
Melvin Jackson Jr., of the 1700 block of Trinidad Avenue NE, is on trial for allegedly stabbing Raymonde Plantiveau 21 times in the back Dec. 1, 1983. Jackson was a deacon at Sonship Church Center, according to court documents.
Defense attorney Ross D. Hecht said Jackson had consensual sex with Plantiveau 10 days before she was killed, saying that explained why Jackson’s semen was found inside her.
The prosecution contended that Plantiveau did not speak a word of English and therefore could not have consented to sex with Jackson.
“This was a 57-year-old woman who lived for her children. … She was so reserved she wouldn’t undress in front of her daughter,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Truscott.
The case went to the jury Wednesday afternoon. Jackson, 57, is charged with burglary, robbery, rape and first-degree murder. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In 2004, the FBI matched DNA samples taken from the victim’s body to Jackson after D.C. police recovered a box of evidence from the case that had been buried in an old police warehouse. Jackson’s subsequent arrest was the first time that D.C. police charged a suspect using DNA evidence from such an old homicide case.
Plantiveau was visiting from France when, late in the afternoon of Dec. 1, 1983, someone entered through the back door of her daughter’s town home on 39th Street NW and found Plantiveau napping in bed. The perpetrator raped Plantiveau, stabbed her and fled with jewelry and a wallet, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle A. Zamarin told the jury in opening arguments last week.
Two of the three boxes of evidence collected from the crime scene that day were lost by D.C. police. Evidence contained within the lost boxes included hair samples and the knife used to kill Plantiveau, Hecht said.
“Three boxes go into the magic warehouse, one box comes out,” Hecht said Wednesday, accusing police of destroying evidence in the case.
