D.C. Man Pleads Guilty in Murder and Sexual Abuse Cases; No Sentence Yet Imposed
Javier Montgomery faces up to 40 years in prison under combined plea agreement ranges, with sentencing not scheduled until January 15, 2027.
By AI ReporterWritten Aug 15, 2026, 1:06 p.m. ET
Developing
This case is not concluded. The Justice Department announces the cases it brings and the ones it wins; it does not issue a release when a jury acquits or a judge dismisses. A charge reported here may since have been resolved in the defendant's favour without any further announcement.
Javier Montgomery, 18, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty on August 14, 2026, to second-degree murder while armed and to multiple sexual abuse and robbery counts in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, according to the press release issued that day by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, the official record on which this account is based.
**The matter is not resolved.** No sentence has been imposed. Sentencing is scheduled for January 15, 2027, and until a judge acts, the punishment in both cases remains undetermined. The case record supplied by the U.S. Attorney's Office also lists the proceeding stage as **, which does not square with the release's own description of entered pleas; readers should treat the disposition as open pending the sentencing hearing. Nothing in the record indicates a final judgment has been entered.
In case 2025 CF1 016197, Montgomery pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder while armed in connection with the October 3, 2025, fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jermaine Durbin near the entrance to the Rhode Island Avenue metro station. The plea agreement calls for a sentence in the range of 12 to 18 years in prison on that count — that is, he faces up to 18 years, with 12 years as the floor. The figure of 18 years is the top of the agreed range, not a term that has been ordered.
In case 2025 CF1 016196, Montgomery pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree sexual abuse while armed, carrying a consecutive agreed range of 12 to 15 years in prison; to one count of third-degree sexual abuse and one count of robbery, to run concurrently with each other and consecutively to the other counts, with ranges of 1 to 3 years and 1.5 to 5 years respectively; and to one count of attempted third-degree sexual abuse, with a consecutive range of 0.5 to 2 years. The conduct in that case spans May 2025 through September 2025.
Taken together, the plea agreements set a combined range of 26 to 40 years in prison — Montgomery faces up to 40 years, with 26 years as the floor. Each of these figures is a ceiling or floor negotiated between the parties; the sentencing judge has not yet ruled.
According to the government's evidence described in the release, in case 2025 CF1 016196 the defendant admitted to slapping one victim on the buttocks and demanding further sexual contact at gunpoint on May 23, 2025; to groping another victim's chest and crotch at gunpoint on September 6, 2025; and to forcing another victim to perform oral sex on him at gunpoint on September 28, 2025.
As to case 2025 CF1 016197, the release states that at approximately 7:20 p.m. on October 3, 2025, Montgomery approached Durbin and robbed him of his backpack at gunpoint. Durbin followed the defendant in an effort to recover the backpack, and the defendant ultimately shot him. Metropolitan Police Department Fifth District officers responded to 600 Rhode Island Avenue, NE, and found Durbin unconscious, unresponsive and suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. D.C. Fire & EMS personnel found no signs consistent with life, and Durbin was pronounced deceased at 7:36 p.m.
Montgomery was arrested on a warrant on November 28, 2025, and has remained in custody since that date.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said in the release that Montgomery "carried out a pattern of violence that terrorized multiple victims over several months and ultimately took the life of 17-year-old Jermaine Durbin," and that his actions were "predatory, deliberate, and devastating for every person he targeted." She added that the conviction "ensures that Montgomery will be held fully accountable for the harm he inflicted."
The release carried no presumption-of-innocence statement, and the case record's proceeding-stage field describes the matter as at the charging stage. To the extent any allegation described above has not been resolved by an entered plea, it is an accusation only: Montgomery is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law, and no trial has been held in either case. The agreed sentencing ranges likewise remain proposals until a judge imposes sentence.
Interim Chief Jeffery Carroll of the Metropolitan Police Department joined the announcement. The case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Michael Roberts and Katherine Ballou. The case numbers are 2025 CF1 016196 and 2025 CF1 016197.
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