District Man Sentenced to 40 Years in Prison
For the Killing of His Teenage Daughter
- He Left Her Body in a Trash Can, Tried to Cover Up the Crime -

     WASHINGTON - Rodney Mc Intyre, 45, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to 40 years in prison on a charge of first degree murder while armed in the slaying last year of his 17-year-old daughter, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.

     Mc Intyre pled guilty in July 2011 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He was sentenced this morning by the Honorable Lynn Leibovitz, who said that Mc Intyre’s conduct “was the product of a depraved heart in the truest sense of the legal meaning of the term.”

     According to a statement of facts presented at the plea hearing, and signed by the defendant, the victim, Ebony Franklin, was raised by her mother in Maryland. In 2008, after her father’s release from prison, where he had served time for threats in a domestic violence case, Ebony reinitiated contact with him. She was then 15.

     On Friday, November 26, 2010, Ebony was to meet Mc Intyre in the Columbia Heights area of Northwest Washington to shop for Christmas presents. After that meeting, she was to return to her mother’s home to complete her chores. Once those chores were completed, Ebony planned to spend the weekend with her father, as well as visit her boyfriend.

     Upon arriving in the District on November 26, Ebony met with her father near Meyer Elementary School, where Mc Intyre worked for an after-school program. At the school, in the 2500 block of 11th Street NW, Mc Intyre stabbed the victim at least 15 times, causing her death.

     At some point after the murder, Mc Intyre disposed of his daughter’s body by placing it in a trash can. He then covered the body with trash and wheeled the can to the rear of a building in the 1000 block of Fairmont Street NW. Ebony’s body was discovered three days later.

     Between May 2008 and the time of her murder, Mc Intyre engaged in sexual intercourse with his daughter on multiple occasions. Before the body was discovered, he attempted to conceal his daughter’s disappearance and murder. He used her cellphone to send multiple text messages, including some directed to her stepfather that asked if her mother was upset that she had not come home. On the morning of November 28, 2010, Mc Intyre used the cellphone to send a text message to the victim’s mother, saying, among other things, “Remember.the.bitch.told.on.my.man.now.yoo.get.her.out.the.trash.”

     The defendant also visited local police stations over the weekend to report that Ebony was missing. He was arrested for the murder in May and has been in custody ever since.

     “It is difficult to imagine a crime more horrific than a father murdering his own daughter,” said U.S. Attorney Machen. “We want to extend our deepest condolences to Ebony’s mother. We hope that the justice meted out today brings some comfort to all those who loved Ebony and have suffered this terrible loss.”

     In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen praised those who worked on the case from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Detectives Thomas Braxton and Lee Littlejohn, Paralegal Specialist Alesha Matthews Yette, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine, who prosecuted the case.

11-475

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