District Man Indicted on Enhanced Second-Degree Theft for Stealing Multiple Packages

            WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, March 6, 2024, Demetrius Hamm, 55, of Washington, D.C., was indicted by a grand jury in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on three counts of felony second-degree theft stemming from events occurring on January 30, 2024, U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Chief Pamela Smith, of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) announced.

            Hamm has been arraigned and has another hearing before a Superior Court judge on March 19, 2024.

            According to the government’s evidence, on January 30, 2024, Hamm took packages off of a porch in Northwest Washington, DC. Hamm was quickly located and arrested by members of the Metropolitan Police Department.    

            Hamm has two or more prior theft convictions, though not from the same occasion, and therefore is subject to enhanced penalties for his alleged theft, including a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in jail for each count of theft for which he is indicted.

            Since September 1, 2023, including the aforementioned case, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has indicted 31 cases involving a felony second-degree theft charge based on a defendant’s two or more prior theft convictions, not from the same occasion.

            This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. It is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Yee Yee Myint.

            An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of criminal laws and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.