Andre Suggs, who admitted to the May 28 murder of bicyclist Mark Stephen Creasy, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. Suggs pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November, foregoing the need for a federal trial. Because the incident happened on Daingerfield Island, which is designated as federal parkland, Creasy’s murder is not included in city crime statistics for 2005.
The murder happened on Memorial Day weekend on a bike path that cuts through the eastern edge of the city. According to court documents, Creasy, 48, was riding his bike along Marina Drive toward the Potomac River at about 4:30 p.m. when he was fatally attacked by a stranger.
“The road cuts through heavily wooded land, which, in late May, was covered with thick underbrush,” wrote United States Attorney Paul McNulty in a statement of facts agreed to by Suggs and his attorney. “There are numerous, narrow foot trails running through the woods.”
A nearby witness who was standing on the Potomac shoreline heard a series of three screams, the last of which was noticeably softer than the first two. He went to the scene of the crime to investigate. It’s there where he told prosecutors that he saw Suggs, 36, sprawled over Creasy’s body in the middle of the road.
“The witness approached to within 15 feet of the pair, and Suggs arose and said to him words to the effect of, ‘I'll do to you what I did to him,’” McNulty wrote.
The witness said that he mounted his own bicycle and fled northward on Marina Drive. U.S. Park Police arrived at the maintenance lot shortly afterward and saw Creasy lying dead.
“He was dressed in shorts, was shirtless and had on bicycle shoes and a bicycle helmet,” McNulty wrote. “He had severe bruising around his neck and what later was determined to be human bite marks on his left breast and on the left side of his torso.”
Less than an hour later, Suggs was arrested while crossing the George Washington Parkway naked. A police spokesman described Suggs as uncooperative, adding that he tried to bite several of his arresting officers.
A May 30 autopsy determined that the cause of Creasy's death was strangulation as a result of compression of the carotid arteries resulting in his brain being deprived of blood.
“The cause of death and extensive bruising are consistent with Suggs having placed Creasy in a headlock or choke hold from behind,” McNulty wrote. “Forensic analysis of DNA taken from the bite mark on Creasy’s torso matched a sample of DNA taken from Suggs.”