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William Barrett, 69, of Mount Holly, was sentenced on Friday, Oct. 25 to 25 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said in a news release on Monday, Oct. 28. He was arrested in the killing of 36-year-old Romaine Maddox, a resident of the northeast quadrant of D.C.
According to trial evidence, Barrett and Maddox checked into Ivy City Hotel on New York Avenue, Northeast at around 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 22. The couple was there to celebrate Maddox's birthday and surveillance video showed Maddox was "ecstatic" when the two entered their room.
The couple was in the room for several hours before cameras captured Maddox screaming for help from the hotel room at around 2 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 23.
"She was never seen alive again," the U.S. Attorney's Office said. "Barrett told detectives that he and Ms. Maddox got into an argument that turned physical."
Investigators said Barrett angrily grabbed a ceramic toilet tank cover and hit Maddox over the head several times, breaking the cover into three pieces. Barrett then wrapped his belt around her neck and pulled up on it while she was lying on the floor.
Barrett went to sleep as Maddox's bloody body was at the foot of the bed. He left the room in the morning after waking up and seeing her unconscious on the floor.
Hotel staff found Maddox's body several hours later. Barrett pleaded guilty to second-degree murder while armed on Friday, Aug. 23.
In September, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said Ivy City Hotel would be required to make "significant security upgrades" after Maddox's killing and other violent incidents. Between February 2023 and February 2024, there was one other homicide, two armed robberies, and three non-homicide deaths possibly drug-related.
Schwalb said the hotel must increase overnight security staffing, link its cameras to the Metropolitan Police Department's (MPD) surveillance network, and submit to attorney general's office inspections through August 2025.
"I am committed to using every legal tool available to improve public safety in the district including, where appropriate, requiring property owners to take meaningful measures to deter crime," Schwalb said. "The Office of Attorney General works closely with MPD to address properties like the Ivy City Hotel that are plagued by drugs, guns, and violence."
Barrett will have five years of supervised release after his prison sentence.
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