D.C. Man Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison for Road Rage Assault that Left Taxi Driver Injured

July 15, 2005

United States Attorney Kenneth Wainstein announced that Eugene Kojo Holmes, Jr., 28, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced recently by Superior Court Judge Susan Winfield to two years in prison for an attempted aggravated assault of a taxi driver whom the defendant believed cut off his vehicle. Holmes pled guilty to the charge on May 17, 2005. Judge Winfield’s sentence was the maximum suggested by the applicable Superior Court sentencing guidelines.

According to the government’s evidence, on April 23, 2003, the defendant misconstrued the victim’s attempt to let the defendant’s vehicle proceed first at an intersection. The defendant then followed the victim several blocks.

As the taxi driver delivered his fare to the Grand Hyatt Hotel, located at 1000 H Street, NW (PSA 101), the defendant reportedly parked his car and ran to the taxi driver to confront him. The defendant punched the taxi driver in his eye and, when the victim got out of his car to tell the defendant to wait for the police to arrive, punched the taxi driver several more times about the eye and head, even after the victim lost consciousness.

As a result of the attack, the taxi driver suffered a permanently dislocated lens and broken bones in his eye socket and nose.