Opinion ID: 2182774
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The May 13-14 incidents

Text: The house next door at 4428 New Hampshire Avenue, where Clifford Smith lived with various family members (the Smith house), was physically connected to the Johnson house. On the night of May 13, 1992, Mr. Smith was sitting outside in front of another neighbor's house, talking with a few other persons; Gilmore was there also. After a few minutes' conversation, Mr. Gilmore and Mr. Smith's brother William got into a shoving match, and Gilmore threatened to kill both Clifford and William Smith because he said they were messing around with his wife. Gilmore then walked down the street and returned with a knife, which he swung at William Smith. Before he could hurt anyone, however, another man snatched the knife out of his hand and threw it away... across the street, where it was found by the police later that night. Clifford Smith went back inside his house and asked someone (not further identified) to call the police. Gilmore fled when the police arrived. About two hours later, someone knocked on the door of the Smith house. Clifford Smith testified: I went and answered the door, and I opened it. He [Gilmore] had knocked on the door and went down to the bottom of the steps, and he had a cocktail bottle cocked back and [said that] he was going to fuck me up, excuse my language, that he [was] going to mess me up, and was going to kill me, he [was] going to burn the house down. Mr. Smith described the bottle as a bottle of gasoline with the stem hanging out the top of it. Then, as Gilmore attempted to light it with a cigarette lighter, Smith told him the police were coming, whereupon Gilmore grabbed the bottle and just ran up the street. Later, however, he returned to the Smith house with a second bottle similar to the first. Gilmore lit the wick and tried to throw the bottle toward the Smith house, but it slipped from his hand and fell to the ground approximately fifteen or twenty feet short of its target. During this second encounter, Mr. Gilmore threatened to kill Ms. Holmes, who was standing on her porch next door, as well as Charles and William Smith; he also said he was going to burn down both of their houses. Clifford Smith's testimony was corroborated by three other witnesses. William Smith said that while he and some friends were sitting outside drinking, Gilmore started to jump up and threaten [him] and accused him of sleeping with his wife. William Smith eventually punched Gilmore on the chin, whereupon Gilmore ran to the car and got ... a knife. With the knife in his hand, Gilmore approached Smith and threatened to kill both him and Clifford Smith. Later that night, William Smith saw Gilmore approaching their house with a lighted bottle in his hand, threatening to kill them both and to blow up their house. William Smith went inside and called the police. Michelle Holmes testified that she saw Gilmore coming down the street with ... cocktail bombs in his arms. He was throwing them, but they slipped, and he was yelling. Finally, Officer James Castellano of the Metropolitan Police testified that at approximately 2:00 a.m. he went to 4428 New Hampshire Avenue, where he took a report for threats. About an hour later, he was called back to the same house, where he saw an orange juice bottle on the ground in front of the house, on fire. On closer inspection he saw that the bottle was filled with some kind of liquid. When Officer Castellano kicked the bottle, it broke, and the liquid burned itself out on the sidewalk. [4] William Kinard, a forensic chemist with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), was accepted as an expert in the area of forensic chemistry. He testified that he performed a chemical analysis on what was left of the bottle and found gasoline on it. James Powell, an ATF explosives enforcement officer, testified as an expert on explosives and incendiary devices. He described a Molotov cocktail as a breakable container containing flammable liquid with some sort of wick, or something to ignite the flammable liquid.