Trial begins for 2 teen girls accused of beating 64-year-old man to death in DC

WASHINGTON - The trial for two teenage girls accused of beating and stomping a man to death in Northwest last October is now underway in the District.

FOX 5 has been covering this case for nearly a year. The murder trial is now before a judge. 

The two girls, ages 14 and 15 are charged with first and second-degree murder but because they are minors, we're not able to report any information that would identify them. 

What they're accused of doing is hard to hear. 

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Teen suspects in brutal death of 64-year-old DC man appear in court ahead of trial

Prosecutors say the night Reggie Brown was murdered, a group of five girls was out looking for a victim and found the most vulnerable person — a frail, 64-year-old man who suffered a lifetime of health issues and was a cancer survivor.  

D.C.'s deputy chief medical examiner says Brown suffered multiple blunt force injuries causing his death.

Prosecutors say the murder, which happened just past midnight on Oct. 17 on Georgia Avenue, Northwest, was brutal and premeditated.  

They say the girls kicked and stomped Brown in the head, removing his belt and whipping him with it, then leaving him to die on the street.  

"We want justice for him because we don’t want this to happen to any other family," Reggie Brown’s sister Malda Brown said. 

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"This is really, really sad. It hurts my heart — I'm going to tell you the honest-to-God truth — to see these young people here and what's going on in the world today. It's mainly the young people committing these crimes. If we don't do something and continuously, like I said over and over again, to let them keep on escaping the consequences it's going to just get worse for other families."

Evidence in this case includes surveillance video of the attack and cell phone video prosecutors say shows the girls beat Brown enthusiastically, then celebrating afterward.

When autopsy photos of Brown were displayed in court, the two teens on trial stared blankly while some of his relatives had to step out.

"We are heartbroken that some young people would do this to our brother," Malda said, adding that she believes the teens should be charged as adults. 

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Grieving family pushes for adult charges against 3 DC teens accused in deadly beating

"Unfortunately the law does not stipulate that they can be but that’s what we want as a family," she said. 

Prosecutors say when the murder made the news two days after Brown was killed, the girls tried to delete the evidence, including Instagram messages, and tried to get their story straight.

One of the defense attorneys says what happened to Brown is absolutely horrible but that his client did not kill him and that there was no conspiracy with others to commit a murder.   

One of the five girls charged in this case has already struck a plea deal. The other two are scheduled to go on trial in November.