In the early hours of a Friday morning in Washington, D.C., a dispute escalated into a fatal encounter that ended the life of 24-year-old Joel David Midgett. On October 16, 2015, at approximately 1:10 a.m., Midgett was stabbed in the 200 block of K Street NW. Another man was also injured in the incident but survived his wounds. Midgett was transported to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
For several years, the case remained unsolved, adding to the deep-seated grief of
Midgett's family, who had previously lost two other family members to violence in the city. Joel's father had been killed in 1990 before his son was born, and his uncle was murdered in 2003. The death of Joel David Midgett marked the third generation of the family to be impacted by homicide in Washington, D.C.
A breakthrough in the investigation came on November 26, 2019, when the Metropolitan Police Department arrested 28-year-old Olivia Cartwright-Cole. She was charged with second-degree murder while armed in connection with Midgett's death. According to court documents, Midgett and Cartwright-Cole were acquaintances. The altercation that led to the stabbing reportedly stemmed from an argument over items that Cartwright-Cole believed had been taken from her apartment. The disagreement escalated into a physical fight involving several people, during which Midgett was fatally wounded.
Following her arrest, Olivia Cartwright-Cole, a transgender woman, was released into the High Intensity Supervision Program in February 2020, a decision made by a judge who noted the two-year gap between her identification as a suspect and her actual arrest. Her release was subject to conditions, including GPS monitoring. Court records from 2020 indicate that there were hearings concerning her compliance with these conditions.
