Wilbert Whitaker

Introduction

Wilbert Whitaker is a 77-year-old Washington, D.C., man who was found guilty on November 4, 2026, of second-degree murder while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence for the killing of 30-year-old Leo Hackett, his daughter’s boyfriend, on April 30, 2016. The conviction came in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia ten years after the shooting, which followed a family disturbance call that police had answered without making an arrest. According to the government’s evidence, Whitaker loaded a .38 special revolver after officers left, followed Hackett out of the house, called out to him, and fired two shots as Hackett turned, striking him once in the chest and killing him. Sentencing is set for January 8, 2027.

Background Information

The events that ended in Hackett’s death began as a domestic argument. On April 30, 2016, in the 800 block of 21st Street Northeast, Fifth District officers responded to a 911 call reporting a family disturbance at 811 21st Street Northeast, where Whitaker and Hackett had been arguing. Officers observed no injuries and heard no reports of an assault, and they left the scene without making any arrests. What the responding officers could not see was that the argument had not ended — the government’s evidence describes Whitaker retrieving a .38 special revolver from his bedroom and loading it a short time later. Whitaker was arrested at the scene of the shooting that same day, released on May 16, 2016, following his preliminary hearing, and the case then took a decade to reach a verdict. The investigation was the Metropolitan Police Department’s; the prosecution belonged to Assistant United States Attorneys Kathleen Gibbons and Michael Roberts.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted; sentencing pending. Whitaker was found guilty of second-degree murder while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence; sentencing is scheduled for January 8, 2027.

According to the government’s evidence, after the officers left the April 30, 2016, family-disturbance call, Whitaker retrieved a .38 special revolver from his bedroom and loaded it. Hackett left the house to go to work, and the defendant followed him out. As Hackett walked away, Whitaker called out to him; as Hackett turned, Whitaker fired two shots with the revolver, striking him once in the left side of his chest and killing him. The shooting happened in the open, on the street outside the home where the argument had taken place, minutes after police had responded to that same address and concluded the dispute warranted no arrest. The jury’s verdict on November 4, 2026, held Whitaker answerable for that sequence: second-degree murder while armed, an offense carrying a mandatory minimum of five years in prison when committed with a firearm, plus the separate firearm conviction. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman scheduled sentencing for January 8, 2027.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The conviction was announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, joined by Interim Chief Jeffery Carroll of the Metropolitan Police Department — an institutional acknowledgment of a decade-old case reaching judgment. The consequences on the record are the two guilty findings themselves and the mandatory minimum they carry: because the second-degree murder was committed with a firearm, the conviction carries at least five years in prison, with the firearm-during-a-crime-of-violence count adding its own exposure ahead of the January 2027 sentencing. The announcement records no statement from Whitaker or defense counsel, and no separate proceeding beyond the criminal case. For Hackett’s family, the verdict arrived ten years and six months after the 911 call that first brought officers to the house — a resolution far longer in coming than the investigation that produced it.

Current Status

Whitaker stands convicted of second-degree murder while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, and awaits sentencing before Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman on January 8, 2027. The case is docketed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia under case number 2016 CF1 006574, and the verdict closed a trial journey that began with his arrest at the scene on April 30, 2016, his release after a May 16, 2016, preliminary hearing, and ten years of proceedings in between. The announcement did not report any post-verdict motion, so the conviction stands as entered, with the mandatory minimum of five years a floor for the sentence to come.

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 77, Whitaker faces sentencing as a convicted murderer at an age when custody terms carry a different weight — whatever term Judge Edelman imposes in January 2027 will likely occupy the remainder of his life, and the second-degree murder conviction is permanent in any event. The case is also a record of what one unarrested argument became: the officers who answered the family-disturbance call left without arrests, and within minutes, by the government’s account, the same dispute produced a loaded revolver and a shooting on the sidewalk. Hackett was 30 and on his way to work when he was killed. The verdict, ten years later, is the court system’s final answer to that afternoon, and the January sentencing will set the term that answers it in years.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia, "Jury Finds D.C. Man Guilty of the 2016 Murder of His Daughter’s Boyfriend," November 4, 2026. source