The nephew of a former Washington Wizards star was convicted Thursday in a road rage shooting that injured two teenagers in 2019.
Elimar DePaula Padilla was wounded so severely, doctors told her she would never walk again.
She was 19 years old when she got into her then boyfriend’s Infiniti sedan about 7:30 p.m. Aug. 8, 2019.
He drove to an apartment complex on Crystal Hill Circle in Germantown, Maryland. Unfamiliar with the area, he made a lane change, cutting off another car a Chrysler 200, enraging the driver, 30-year-old D’Andre Wall.
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Moments later, Wall fired a handgun into the back of the Infiniti before fleeing the scene, prosecutors said.
Padilla and the driver were struck and injured.
“The doctors told me I’m never gonna walk again, that it was a complete spinal cord injury,” Padilla said. “The bullet went through my spinal cord.”
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A few hours later, Wall exchanged texts with his uncle – NBA star John Wall, who was playing for the Washington Wizards at that time – asking for help getting a hotel room in North Carolina that night. He also texted he might need a lawyer, sending a screen shot of the apartment complex’s emergency alert about the shooting.
Padilla testified at the trial, but after her appearance, she had to watch the proceedings via a Zoom link in another room. She said after D’Andre Wall was found guilty, she was told the judge felt her continued presence in the courtroom in a wheelchair could have unduly influenced the jury.
“It kind of just caught me off guard, because I wasn’t them to deny me something that should be my right,” Padilla said.
Padilla has vowed that she will walk again.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy noted Wall was legally prohibited from carrying a gun.
“He should not have had a handgun in the first place based on the convictions he had down in Raleigh, North Carolina,” McCarthy said.
D’Andre Wall was convicted of one count of attempted manslaughter for the shots that injured the driver of the Infiniti sedan. He also was convicted of using a handgun in a violent crime.
He is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 10. He faces a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison.
