In re M.W.

── In re M.W. ── Court: District of Columbia Court of Appeals Date: May 07, 2026 Category: General Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the Atlantic and Maryland Reporters. Users are requested to notify the Clerk of the Court of any formal errors so that corrections may be made before the bound volumes go to press. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEALS No. 23-FS-0588 IN RE M.W., APPELLANT. Appeal from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia (2022-DEL-000993) (Hon. Robert A. Salerno, Trial Judge) (Argued January 30, 2025 Decided May 7, 2026) Amy Phillips, Public Defender Service, with whom Samia Fam and Jaclyn Frankfurt, Public Defender Service, were on the briefs, for appellant. Anne A. Deng, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee the District of Columbia. Brian L. Schwalb, Attorney General, Caroline S. Van Zile, Solicitor General, Ashwin P. Phatak, Principal Deputy Solicitor General, Carl J. Schifferle, Deputy Solicitor General, and Dia Rasinariu, Assistant Attorney General, were on the briefs for appellee. Before MCLEESE, DEAHL, and SHANKER, Associate Judges. MCLEESE, Associate Judge: Appellant M.W., who is a juvenile, appeals from a judgment finding him responsible for attempted murder and related offenses. M.W. challenges the trial court’s exclusion at trial of evidence of two hearsay statements. We affirm.  2 I. Factual and Procedural Background A. The District’s Evidence at Trial The evidence at trial included the following. M.W.’s mother, who was driving a gray Jeep, and Nira Monk, who was driving a dark blue Nissan, parked near each other in a parking lot outside of a store on Howard Road, S.E. M.W. was a passenger in the car his mother was driving. Ms. Monk was accompanied by her boyfriend, Bernard Boyd, and her children. M.W.’s mother and Ms. Monk got into an argument. M.W. and Mr. Boyd became involved in the argument. According to Ms. Monk, M.W. was very combative. Mr. Boyd believed that M.W. had a gun at the time of the argument because Mr. Boyd saw M.W. go to the car’s trunk and fidget with his hand near his hip. During the argument, Officer Shaun Freeman was standing a few feet away. The groups eventually returned to their cars and left the parking lot. M.W. rode in the passenger seat of the car his mother was driving. Ms. Monk’s car went out of the parking lot first and turned right onto Howard Road. M.W.’s mother’s car left the parking lot immediately after and turned left onto Howard Road. At the time that the cars left the parking lot, the Metropolitan Police Department received a ShotSpotter alert for three shots at the store’s location.  3 Surveillance videos depicting the argument and the cars leaving the store were introduced into evidence at trial. The District of Columbia’s theory of the case was that M.W. had shot at Ms. Monk’s car from the passenger seat as the car his mother was driving left the parking lot. Ms. Monk testified that when she turned out of the parking lot, she immediately heard gun shots and saw the Jeep speed away in the opposite direction. Ms. Monk believed that she heard about five shots because she later found “about five” bullet holes in the back of her car. The bullet holes had not been there before the incident. Mr. Boyd heard four to five gunshots immediately after Ms. Monk’s car pulled out of the parking lot. He saw a muzzle flash coming from the passenger side of the Jeep and felt debris brush across his face. Once he got home after the incident, Mr. Boyd saw four bullet holes in the back of Ms. Monk’s car. About five to six minutes after the shooting, Officers Anthony Gramieri and