Jury begins deliberations in fatal 2023 Rock Creek Parkway crash

WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — The jury is deliberating in a case against a woman accused of killing three people in a head-on collision in 2023. 46-year-old Nakita Walker is facing three counts of murder, plus fleeing police and assault with a dangerous weapon. Both sides made their closing arguments on Thursday. The jury was sent to deliberate around 12:30 p.m., with the court ending for the day without a verdict at 4:30 p.m. According to the prosecution, Walker was driving 100 miles per hour on Rock Creek Parkway in the early morning of March 15, 2023. Her speed dropped to 72 miles per hour at the moment of impact, when she allegedly crossed the double yellow line into oncoming traffic and crashed into another car. The driver of that car, Lyft driver Mohammad Kamara, and his two passengers, Olvin Torres Velasquez and Jonathan Cabrera Mendez, were all killed. Medical records shared in court indicated Walker was intoxicated at the time, with her blood alcohol level at .10. Minutes before the crash, a Park Police officer pulled Walker over for speeding, she fled the stop. The prosecution pointed to an interaction during that stop as proof that Walker knew her driving was putting others at extreme risk of death. “Why you over here?” asked the passenger in Walker’s car. “So I don’t have to stand in traffic. So I don’t have to get hit by a car. Come on man, I’m not trying to get myself killed. I’ve got people driving fast as hell, she’s coming driving, she’s going to kill me. I’m not going to be nothing left,” the officer said. Walker’s defense team argued that only the passenger in Walker's car was drinking, not Walker. And, that the Lyft driver, Kamara, had a blood alcohol level of .04. He also pointed to Walker telling the officer, “My father’s son left my son in the house and he’s in there by himself,” as the explanation for why she was driving so fast. The jury will resume deliberations next week. They could also move to find Walker guilty on the lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter or negligent homicide.