Bowie Man Found Guilty Of Kidnapping, Murder: Court

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — Four men including one from Prince George's County, has been found guilty by a federal jury of murder and other charges in the kidnapping of a Maryland man whose body was found in June 2018 in an alley in southeast Washington, D.C. The victim had been shot numerous times and his hands were bound with zip-ties.

Darin Moore Jr., 29, of Bowie and Gabriel Brown, 33, and John Sweeney, 29, both from Washington, D.C., were found guilty following a trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping resulting in death, first-degree murder while armed and felony murder. James Thomas Taylor, 33, also of Washington, D.C.., was found guilty of kidnapping resulting in death and felony murder. A mistrial was declared on the remaining two counts in the indictment against Taylor. All four defendants are scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 6, 2023.

According to the government’s evidence, on June 19, 2018, the victim, Andre Simmons Jr., 28, from Bowie was abducted at gunpoint in Maryland, bound with zip-ties and forced into a vehicle by Moore and Sweeney. During the hours that followed, several ransom calls were made from Taylor’s phone to Simmons’ family who delivered $7,000 in cash to a drop location as instructed by the kidnappers. The money was picked up by Brown, according to court documents.

An hour after the ransom payment was picked up at about 6:25 a.m. on June 20, 2018, the defendants shot Simmons 19 times and left his zip-tied body in an alley off the 600 block of Atlantic Street SE. The four men then met up in Capitol Heights, Maryland, to divide up the proceeds of the ransom demand, court documents disclosed.

Moore was arrested June 20, 2018. Brown was arrested June 27, 2018, Taylor was arrested Aug. 17, 2018, and Sweeney was arrested Jan. 14, 2019. All have been in custody since their arrests.