Chat-Line Assailant Sentenced to 16 Years
Victim, stabbed multiple times, escaped to yell for help from neighbors prompting assailant to flee
The Washington man convicted of stabbing another man he met through a dating chat line has been sentenced to 16 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Lamar Brown, 37, of D.C., had pleaded guilty to a charge of assault with intent to kill while armed in November 2013. The assault occurred after Brown met a man through a chat line, established a relationship via text messages and phone conversations, and eventually went to the man’s apartment. He later stabbed the victim as he slept. D.C. Superior Court Judge Ronna L. Beck last week sentenced Brown to 16 years in prison, citing the viciousness of the attack. Upon completing his sentence, Brown will be placed on five years of supervised release.
According to the government’s evidence, Brown used a fake name to establish a relationship with the victim and on the morning of July 31, 2012, stabbed the victim in the back of the neck as he slept. The two then struggled, with Brown stabbing the victim in the eye, face, neck, hands and other areas.
The victim escaped and began banging on doors of nearby apartments, at which point Brown fled the scene.
Due, in part, to Brown using a false identity, police initially arrested a different suspect, who was released after emergency cellphone records obtained by the government exonerated him. Other cellphone records eventually led police to Brown, who was arrested on Aug. 20, 2012.
Brown was released from a Virginia state prison, after serving an 18-year sentence, less than a month before the stabbing.
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