WASHINGTON – Darnell Sterling, 57, of Washington, D.C., has been found guilty by a jury of charges stemming from the murder of his girlfriend, whose body has never been recovered, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Robert J. Contee III, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Sterling was found guilty on Oct. 3, 2022, following a trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, of second-degree murder and a related charge of contempt. He is to be sentenced on Feb. 3, 2023, by the Honorable Maribeth Raffinan.
According to the government’s evidence, in the early morning hours of July 17, 2020, Sterling fatally attacked the victim, Olga Ooro, 34, inside her apartment in the 300 block of Massachusetts Avenue NW. Ms. Ooro’s body has never been found. Sterling killed Ms. Ooro while her seven-year-old son was asleep, in the apartment, in his own bedroom. He cleaned up the crime scene and left the building. He then returned the next night and used Ms. Ooro’s keys to enter the building and retrieve the body from a hidden location. He then loaded the body into his car and disposed of it.
Ms. Ooro was reported missing after her son was found wandering the apartment building.
At the time of the murder, Sterling was under a court order to stay away from Ms. Ooro, following his arrest for assaulting her on April 20, 2020.
Sterling was arrested in the murder case on July 23, 2020. He has been in custody ever since.
DOJ
