A look into the criminal history of two suspects connected with the slaying of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes.
Barnes was in a car with her sisters and mother the morning of Dec. 30 on the Beltway 8 feeder road near Wallisville Road as they were on the way to the store for coffee, according to investigators. A gunman drove up in a vehicle and opened fire on the car, investigators said.
Barnes was fatally shot in the head, and her mother, LaPorsha Washington, was shot in the arm.
Before Eric Black Jr., 20, stood before a magistrate, he had no adult criminal record. A person at a home listed as Black’s address in court documents declined to comment.
Prosecutors said Black admitted to driving the car used during the shooting.
“Defendant Black stated that LW began firing out of the passenger side of the vehicle,” a prosecutor stated during a probable cause hearing.
Multiple law enforcement sources, the victim's family attorney, Lee Merit, and social activist Shaun King said “LW” is 24-year-old Larry Woodruffe. He was arrested but has not been charged with Barnes' murder. When he went before a judge, it was on a drug possession charge.
Woodruffe is accused of having more than 120 Xanax pills. Woodruffe is no stranger to the criminal justice system. He has a record for assaulting a family member, evading arrest, drug possession, trespassing and attempted possession of a firearm by a felon. While not charged in Barnes' case, prosecutors asked for a high bond because of his criminal record.
“He's also, of course, a suspect in a homicide investigation, a capital murder investigation,” a prosecutor told the judge.
Woodruffe is being held on a $100,000 bond, and Black is being held without bond.
