WASHINGTON – Antonio Nicks, 34, of Washington, D.C. was sentenced today to eight years in prison for obstructing a homicide investigation, during grand jury proceedings between July 2023 and January 2024, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.
Antonio Nicks was indicted and pleaded guilty on April 6, 2026, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to one count of obstructing justice and one count of contempt. His guilty plea for the indictment was entered on the eve of jury selection. The Honorable Judith Pipe sentenced Nicks to eight years in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release.
According to the government’s evidence, on July 7, 2023, and July 28, 2023, Antonio Nicks testified under oath in a Superior Court grand jury proceeding in Washington D.C. that was investigating the July 9, 2022, stabbing death of Brittany Palmer.
On July 7, 2023, Nicks declined to answer certain questions and purported to invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege on various topics during his grand jury testimony. On July 14, 2023, a Fifth Amendment privilege hearing was held before Chief Judge Anita Josey-Herring. At this hearing, the Chief Judge found that Nicks did not have a Fifth Amendment privilege and ordered him to answer certain questions in the grand jury. During his grand jury testimony on July 28, 2023, Nicks refused to answer questions even though he acknowledged that he was ordered by the Chief Judge to do so. In subsequent hearings before Chief Judge Josey-Herring on October 2, 2023, December 11, 2023, and January 12, 2024, Nicks continued to express his refusal to answer questions as ordered by the Chief Judge.
Nicks was arrested on a material witness warrant on June 21, 2023, and has been in custody ever since.
Joining in the announcement was Interim Chief Jeffery Carroll of the Metropolitan Police Department.
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Pirro and Interim Chief Carroll commended the work of those who investigated this case from the Metropolitan Police Department. They acknowledged the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Galloway, who prosecuted the case.
2024 CF2 002748
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office — District of Columbia — U.S. Department of Justice press release.