Washington Post, Wednesday March 16, 2011
by Ruben Castaneda
Pr. George's Jury Awards $11.5 million in Fatal Police Shooting
The wife and son of a man killed by a Prince George’s County police officer were awarded $11.5 million by a jury Wednesday after it found the officer liable in the fatal shooting.
The money awarded to relatives of Manuel de Jesus Espina is believed to be the largest jury verdict in a case involving misconduct by a Prince George’s police officer, veteran civil rights lawyers said.
Espina, 43, was shot by Cpl. Steven Jackson in a Langley Park apartment building in August 2008, when Jackson was moonlighting as a security guard.
The jury of five women and one man found that Jackson intentionally violated Espina’s constitutional rights, that he acted with malice, that he did not act in self-defense, and that he assaulted and battered Espina before wrongfully killing him. Jackson pepper-sprayed Espina and beat him with his fists and a metal police baton before shooting him, according to court testimony and evidence. Jurors deliberated for 31 / 2 days.
Jackson, 27, who remains on paid administrative leave, did not visibly react as the verdict was announced. He declined to comment.
Espina's son, Manuel de Jesus Espina Jacome, 24, who witnessed the shooting, said he did not care about the monetary award. "The money is not important," he said. "He [Jackson] should be put on trial for the crime he committed."
In a statement, State’s Attorney Angela D. Alsobrooks said her office and the Justice Department are reviewing the case. "We will make a decision as to whether we should proceed criminally in this matter," Alsobrooks said in the statement.
Through a spokesman, acting police Chief Mark Magaw declined to comment, citing the possibility of criminal charges against Jackson.
But Timothy F. Maloney, an attorney for the Espina family, said Jackson should be held accountable. "The jury’s award recognizes the outrageous police misconduct in this case and its impact upon the Espina family," he said. "The facts in this case should shock the conscience of the county and raise the question of who is policing the police."
The fatal encounter occurred Aug. 16, 2008, when Jackson was providing security at an apartment complex on 14th Avenue.
Witnesses for the plaintiffs and Jackson gave starkly different accounts of the incident.
Jackson testified that he saw about a half-dozen men hanging out in front of a three-story building in the complex where he was working. Some of the men, including Espina, were drinking beer.
During the civil trial and in a sworn deposition, Jackson testified that none of the men was suspected of a crime, none had violated any loitering laws and none had committed an alcohol violation. None of them was behaving in a disorderly way, Jackson testified.
Jackson said he approached the men because he was concerned they might be blocking the entrance and to see whether any of them was involved in any wrongdoing. Jackson said that he encountered Espina on a second-floor landing and that when he tried to search him, Espina swung at him and became violent.
Four witnesses for the plaintiffs testified that Jackson pepper-sprayed an unresisting Espina and beat him down the stairs with his fists and a metal police baton. Eventually, the two men went into a basement apartment, where Jackson fired a single, fatal bullet. Two witnesses testified that a bloodied Espina was not fighting or trying to escape in the moments before Jackson shot him.
Daniel Karp, who defended the county and Jackson, said decisions made by Circuit Court Judge Albert W. Northrop contributed to the verdict.
"The county has no choice but to appeal this case because the trial judge would not allow the defense to introduce evidence of Mr. Espina’s illegal status or the fact he had a knife in his pocket at the time of the incident," Karp said. "Both of these facts corroborate Officer Jackson’s testimony that Mr. Espina fought back and resisted arrest."
Three jurors said they did not believe portions of Jackson’s testimony. They questioned, for example, Jackson’s account that he was surrounded by a "mob" of six or seven men who menaced him moments before he shot Espina.
The jury's foreman, Alberta Fisher, 63, of Lanham, said Jackson's account that Espina fought ferociously was not credible, given that Jackson was uninjured, except for some knuckle scrapes, while Espina suffered numerous cuts and bruises before he was shot.
"He needs to get some anger management," Fisher said of Jackson. "God bless him. I’m not angry with him."
Fisher said she thinks the shooting "will play in [Jackson’s] mind forever."
Juror Theron Whitaker Jr., 43, of Cheverly said that Espina may have resisted arrest but that if he did, "he didn't put up much of a fight."
Staff writer Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.
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Washington Post, Tuesday March 1, 2011
by Ruben Castaneda
Son Testifies in Father's Shooting
Prince George's County police Cpl. Steven Jackson beat an unresisting Manuel de Jesus Espina with his metal baton and his fists, then shot him as Espina, his eyes shut and filled with blood, struggled to his feet, Espina's son testified Monday.
After shooting his father, Manuel de Jesus Espina Jacome testified, Jackson provided no medical aid. Espina Jacome said he performed CPR on his fatally wounded father, but his efforts were stopped when other officers arrived and Jackson directed one of them to arrest him.
Espina Jacome testified in a civil trial in Circuit Court in Upper Marlboro, where a jury will decide whether Jackson, 27, is civilly liable for the death of Espina, who was 43.
Espina's relatives have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Jackson and the county in connection with the August 16, 2008, incident.
Jackson shot Espina inside a Langley Park apartment where the officer was moonlighting as a security guard. Jackson has testified that Espina took a swing at him and fought him down two flights of stairs. Jackson testified that inside the apartment, Espina Jacome pushed him from behind, and suddenly four or five other men appeared and threatened him. Jackson said Espina reached for his service weapon, so he shot him.
Espina Jacome, now 24, took the stand in the third week of the trial. He testified through an interpreter, and provided an account that was starkly different from Jackson's, and consistent with that of other plaintiff witnesses.
Under direct examination by Thomas C. Mooney, a member of the plaintiff's legal team, Espina Jacome, who works as an electrician, testified that the day started out as a joyous one, as he and other relatives and friends prepared for a dinner to celebrate his father's birthday that day.
Espina Jacome testified that he, his father, and his mother lived in an apartment next door to the building where Jackson shot his father. The building they lived in and the one in which Espina was shot are part of the same complex.
Espina Jacome said he was shaving when he had a bad premonition, and he went outside. A neighbor told him that a police officer was beating his father, and pointed to the building next door, Espina Jacome testified.
Espina Jacome said he ran to front entrance of the building, which consists of a glass door, and saw Jackson hitting his father with his fists. His father was limping, he was bleeding profusely from his face, and his eyes were closed, Espina Jacome said.
Espina Jacome said he tried to open the door, but it was locked.
As Jackson threw punches, his father tried to put his hands in front of his face, Espina Jacome said.
His father fell, and when he tried to get to his feet, Jackson took the metal police baton from his belt and struck Espina in the head, the face, and on his back and one of his legs, Espina Jacome testified.
Mooney asked whether Espina ever hit or tried to hit Jackson. "He couldn't do anything. How could he hit anyone, he couldn't even see," Espina Jacome testified. "He had no way of defending himself. [Jackson] was hitting my father very hard."
With one baton blow, Jackson knocked Espina down a set of stairs that led to the basement, Espina Jacome testified.
Jackson continued striking Espina, and then the door to a basement apartment opened, Espina Jacome testified.
The apartment was inhabited by friends who were preparing his father's birthday dinner, Espina Jacome said.
Espina Jacome said he kicked in the screen in front of a kitchen window to the basement apartment, and went inside.
Jackson was beating his father in the living room, Espina Jacome said. He yelled three times for Jackson to stop beating his father, Espina Jacome testified.
Espina Jacome said Jackson struck Espina with his firsts, knocking the older man to the ground. When his father struggled to his feet, Jackson slugged him again, knocking him to the floor, Espina Jacome said.
Jackson kept uttering an expletive, Espina Jacome said. Another witness to the shooting, Elvia Rivera, who lived in the apartment, testified last week that Jackson beat an unresisting Espina before shooting him. Rivera also testified that Jackson swore at Espina as he beat him.
Blood was filling his father's eyes, Espina Jacome testified.
"It was so painful to see my father," Espina Jacome said. "He was being devoured like a lion devours a little deer."
Espina Jacome said he told Jackson that "it was wrong what he was doing, and God was watching."
To try to save his father, Espina Jacome said, he grabbed his father and pushed him onto a sofa.
Espina struggled to get to his feet, Espina Jacome said. At that point, Jackson "walked toward him, took out his gun, and shot him."
"I started crying," Espina Jacome testified. He said he ran to his father and began adminstering CPR, which he had learned in high school, while Jackson ran to the only door to the apartment, which the officer kept open with one foot.
When he screamed to to Jackson to call an ambulance, the officer replied, "Shut the [expletive] up," Espina Jacome testified.
Espina Jacome testified that neither he nor his father ever struggled with Jackson over the officer's police baton, as Jackson had testified earlier in the trial. Espina Jacome testified that there was no mob of four or five additional men who menaced Jackson, as the officer earlier testified.
Espina Jacome said his mother, Estela, went into the apartment moments after the shooting and began crying out, asking Jackson in Spanish why he had shot her husband.
Mooney asked Espina Jacome to listen to an audiotape of a 911 call made by Rivera moments after the shooting.
Espina Jacome, dressed in a black suit and a black dress shirt, began weeping as he listened to the sound of his mother wailing, and then a male voice screaming, "Shut the [bleep] up! [Bleep] you!"
Espina Jacome took a tissue from a box set on the plaintiff attorneys' table, wiped away his tears, then identified the two voices as his mother asking Jackson why did he shoot her husband, and Jackson responding with obscenities.
Jackson was the only police officer inside the apartment when the obscenities were uttered, Espina Jacome said.
The trial is expected to last at least another week.
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Washington Post,Tuesday, Oct 13, 2009 Page B.1
By Jonathan Mummolo and Maria
Glod
Pr. George's Lobbyist On Trial on DUI Charges; Jacobs Has History of Traffic Violations
A lobbyist for the Prince George's County Council and sheriff's office is scheduled to stand trial Tuesday on drunken-driving charges, the latest in a string of similar charges he has faced since the early 1990s.
David A. Jacobs of Mitchellville, husband of county school board chairman Verjeana M. Jacobs (At Large), was charged with DUI and other traffic offenses after losing control of his sport-utility vehicle April 29 and striking a guardrail and another vehicle, police said.
Police records show that his blood-alcohol level was 0.17, more than twice the legal limit. His trial will be held in Prince George's District Court.
Jacobs once served as director of the county's office of emergency preparedness, but he resigned in 2001 after being stopped multiple times on suspicion of drunken driving.
After attending a recovery program, he began work as a lobbyist, but he continued to have run-ins with the law on serious traffic violations, some of which landed him in jail.
Despite his history, the county and others have continued to pay Jacobs as a contracted lobbyist. According to a state ethics database, he represented the County Council, sheriff's office, Town of Colmar Manor and a developer during the state's last legislative session.
Neither Jacobs nor his wife responded to calls for comment. David Jacobs's attorney, Thomas C. Mooney, declined to comment.
Asked whether Jacobs's criminal history conflicted with his representing a law enforcement agency, Sgt. Mario Ellis, a sheriff's office spokesman, said, "No, because people who've been convicted of DWIs are entitled to work, and he does what he's getting paid to do.
"He is currently not working on anything for us right now," Ellis said. He said he did not know how much Jacobs was paid for his services.
In the April incident, Jacobs was driving a 2007 Honda Pilot east on Enterprise Road in Bowie when the accident occurred. A Prince George's officer responding to the scene wrote in a report that Jacobs smelled strongly of alcohol, "was unaware of his surroundings and did not realize that he was involved in an accident."
Jacobs was polite, but his speech was slurred and he swayed while walking, the report said. He was unable to complete sobriety tests because he could not follow instructions, the officer wrote.
County Council Administrator Craig Price said that Jacobs was paid $36,000 to represent the council's interests in each of the past two legislative sessions and that Jacobs did not drive a county vehicle. Records show that the council also contracted with him in 2006 and 2007.
Price said it was unclear whether Jacobs would lobby for the council again in January because the contracts for next year had not been finalized. Karen Campbell, spokeswoman for the council, did not return a call or an e-mail seeking a comment.
Jacobs has made hundreds of thousands of dollars as a lobbyist advocating for various groups and causes over the years. Last year, he agreed to pay $1,130 to the Maryland State Ethics Commission for failing to file timely reports on his activities. He is currently registered with the state.
In 1992, Jacobs pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated after he was stopped on Interstate 95 in Prince George's. He was fined $85, court records show.
On May 31, 2002, Jacobs was arrested and charged by Prince George's police with fleeing the scene of an accident. The officer described him as "glassy eyed" and "unable to follow instructions" and discovered that his car was uninsured, according to charging documents in that case.
By July 2003, Jacobs had been charged with three other violations, according to court records. On Sept. 21, 2002, he was arrested and charged with driving with a revoked license. Three days later, he was arrested and charged with driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license. In February 2003, he was arrested and charged with driving with a revoked license.
In August 2003, a Charles County Circuit Court judge sentenced him to one year in jail for each of those three cases. He was sentenced to another year for the May 2002 offense in Prince George's, but the sentence ran concurrently with the term in Charles. Court records indicate he served time but was released early.
In June 2008, Jacobs pleaded guilty to one count of driving a motor vehicle on a suspended license. He was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation and a fine.
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Washington Post, Tuesday, Sep 1, 2009; Page B. 2
By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Jail Inmate Alleges Beating by Detectives; Officers Contend That Head Injury Was Self-Inflicted
Prince George's County police are investigating an inmate's allegations that police detectives beat him after they removed him from the jail in Upper Marlboro last month to question him about a homicide.
Maj. Andy Ellis, a police spokesman, said an internal investigation has been launched into Amnio A. Grier's allegations that he was beaten Aug. 11, the day the homicide detectives, David Blazer and Jeffrey Eckrich, presented a court order at the jail and took the Springdale man to police headquarters in Palmer Park.
Ellis said Blazer and Eckrich remain on full duty as the investigation continues.
The detectives did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Ellis said the detectives have told investigators that Grier was injured when he slammed his head against a table in an interview room. Grier was questioned by a homicide sergeant that night and told the supervisor that he had banged his own head on the table, Ellis said.
Grier, who is being held on an armed-robbery charge, was returned to the jail a little before midnight Aug. 11, after being in the custody of the detectives for more than eight hours, said Thomas C. Mooney, Grier's defense attorney.
Shortly after Grier was returned to the jail, a guard noticed that Grier was in discomfort, "with a contusion on his forehead," the jail officer wrote in a report, which was viewed by The Washington Post. Grier "alleged that this incident took place while in the custody of the police," the guard wrote.
Grier was sent to the jail's medical ward, where he was given pain medication and an ice pack, the guard wrote.
In his written statement, Grier, 20, alleged that he was handcuffed to a wall in an interview room at police headquarters when "they slammed my head on the table numerous . . . times." Grier wrote that he was assaulted after he told detectives that he did not know anything about the homicide they were investigating.
"They called paramedics before they [brought] me back. And they told them I refused treatment. And I was brought back to the jail," Grier wrote.
Maj. Derrick Lea, a fire department spokesman, said emergency medical technicians went to police headquarters about 9:40 p.m. Aug. 11 to treat a man suffering from a laceration on his forehead. The man -- whom Lea said he could not identify because of privacy rules -- declined to be taken to a hospital, Lea said.
Grier is not a suspect in the homicide, Mooney and Ellis said. Homicide detectives suspect that Grier has information about the slaying, Mooney and Ellis said.
Ellis said Grier volunteered that he knew something about the homicide Aug. 7, the day he was arrested on an unrelated armed-robbery charge. On that day, when detectives tried to interview him about the murder, Grier complained of chest pains, but emergency medical workers who were summoned found nothing wrong, Ellis said.
After the medical workers left, Grier said he was having a possible asthma attack, according to Ellis. The medical workers returned but again found nothing wrong, Ellis said.
Lea confirmed that fire department medical personnel went to police headquarters Aug. 7 in response to a report of a man with chest pains. The man was not taken to a hospital, Lea said.
Ellis said the Aug. 7 incident shows that Grier has a propensity to "make up stories."
Mooney disagreed. "Clearly, whenever he's in the presence of police, he feels uneasy," Mooney said.
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Washington Post, Wednesday, August 19, 2009; Page B.4
By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Civil Suit Filed in Fatal Shooting by Officer
Relatives of an unarmed man who was fatally shot inside a Langley Park apartment by a Prince George's County police corporal have filed a lawsuit alleging that the officer pepper-sprayed and beat the man, Manuel de Jesus Espina, then shot him even though he was not resisting.
In the moments before Cpl. Steven Jackson, working off duty as a security guard, fired a single fatal bullet Aug. 16, 2008, Espina's son dropped to his knees and pleaded with the officer not to hurt his father, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Circuit Court in Upper Marlboro against the officer and county, seeks more than $40 million in compensatory and punitive damages. In the meantime, Prince George's prosecutors in recent weeks have presented evidence regarding Jackson's actions to a county grand jury, according to three sources familiar with the probe. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because grand jury proceedings are secret.
Jackson is restricted to an administrative job away from the public pending the outcome of the criminal investigation by the state's attorney's office as well as an internal police inquiry. Jackson did not return a phone call Tuesday, nor did his defense attorney.
Maj. Andy Ellis, a police spokesman, declined to comment on the lawsuit or the grand jury investigation. John Erzen, a county spokesman, said he could not comment on pending litigation.
"This really was a coldblooded killing by this officer," said Timothy F. Maloney, the Greenbelt attorney representing the Espina family in the civil case.
Jackson was moonlighting as a security guard at an apartment complex when he encountered Espina, 43, and his son, Manuel de Jesus Espina Jacome, then 26.
Initially, police charged Espina Jacome with second-degree assault for allegedly fighting with Jackson. Those charges were dropped.
A witness told an investigator with Espina Jacome's defense team that the encounter began when Jackson saw Espina with a beer in or near the front of the apartment building and chased him up the stairwell.
Espina and Jackson ended up in a basement apartment occupied by friends of Espina's. The lawsuit alleges that Jackson dragged Espina into the apartment, hitting him in the face and torso with his fists and police-issued retractable baton.
Espina Jacome saw his father being beaten and, fearing for his life, entered the apartment through a window, the lawsuit says. When Espina Jacome asked Jackson to stop hitting his father, the officer replied, "Shut the [expletive] up," according to the lawsuit.
In the days immediately after the shooting, police provided various accounts of the events leading to it.
On the day of the shooting, police said Jackson fired after Espina had reached for the officer's gun. The same day, a police commander said Jackson alleged that the two Espinas tried to pull him into the apartment. The next day, police issued a news release that said Jackson feared for his life when Espina reached for his baton.
The lawsuit alleges that Jackson has engaged in a pattern of brutalizing and violating the civil rights of Hispanics and others.
Police have completed their investigation of an unrelated incident in which Jackson accused a motorist of slugging and tackling him during a traffic stop. A police video showed Jackson hit and tackled the motorist, who did not throw a punch or tackle Jackson. The findings of that investigation will be sent to a civilian complaint review panel, Ellis said.
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Washington Post, Wednesday, June 17 2009; Page B.2
By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Inmate Temporarily Released After Beating
A judge ruled yesterday that a Prince George's County jail inmate who was badly beaten this month after a guard "inadvertently" unlocked his cell door sustained injuries serious enough to warrant temporary release so he can be evaluated by a doctor of his choosing.
Circuit Court Judge Melanie Shaw Geter ordered that DeAndre Wilson, who was convicted of armed robbery, be released on home detention for one week. Shaw Geter said she has a duty to ensure that Wilson receives appropriate treatment. She also noted that the county Corrections Department, which runs the jail, had asked her to allow Wilson to serve the remainder of his 18-month sentence, about half of which he has completed, on home detention.
During a brief court hearing, Wilson's attorney, Thomas C. Mooney, said that since the attack, his client has been dizzy, has had vision problems and cannot concentrate while reading. Wilson was treated at Prince George's Hospital Center but was not admitted.
Wilson, 19, was sleeping in his cell early on the morning of June 6 when he was attacked by another inmate, an alleged member of the Bloods, a violent street gang. A jail guard working in a control booth had inadvertently opened Wilson's cell, allowing the other inmate to enter, said Vernon Herron, the county's public safety director.
Herron said officials have found no link between the jail guard, whom he declined to identify, and the alleged attacker, Jermain "Juice" Williams, 22. The incident is under investigation, Herron said.
The defense has asked that Wilson be granted early release on the grounds that he is at risk. Mooney said during the hearing that Wilson had been attacked twice in the jail before the June 6 incident. Shaw Geter said she would consider the motion next week after Wilson has been medically evaluated.
Assistant State's Attorney Christopher Walsh, who in court papers argued against shortening Wilson's sentence, argued yesterday against releasing him on home detention. He said doing so would send the "wrong message" to inmates, and he said he worried that "we might see a string of similar incidents" if inmates believed they might be released early if they were beaten.
Walsh suggested that Wilson could be escorted to medical appointments outside the jail, and for his safety could also be transferred to another jail, in Charles or St. Mary's counties.
Shaw Geter said she would not make a ruling based on "speculation." Regarding the idea that Wilson could be transferred to another jail, Shaw Geter said, "You can't just come into the courtroom and suggest that. If you'd talked to the detention center and presented that [as an option], we might be in a different place."
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Washington Post, Tuesday, August 22, 2006; Page B03
By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Man Held in Slayings Freed on Bond
Tortuous Case Takes Another Twist as Judge Chastises Prosecutor
A defendant in a seven-year-old double-murder case was released from jail yesterday on a $100,000 bond after a hearing in which a Prince George's County judge sharply rebuked the prosecutor for failing to appear at an earlier hearing.
The decision allowed Robert Angel Perez, 24, to go free for the first time since he was initially convicted of the murders in April 2001. Perez has been convicted twice by juries; both convictions have been overturned.
During yesterday's hearing, Circuit Court Judge Graydon S. McKee III also chastised Assistant State's Attorney John Maloney for complaining to McKee's law clerk about the outcome of Friday's hearing.
"If you have a complaint with me, [talk] to me," McKee, his voice rising, told Maloney, after scolding him for being late to yesterday's hearing on whether Perez was entitled to bail. "I don't want you to give my clerk a hard time again. I'm here all day long."
Regarding Friday's hearing, McKee said, "You asked for an arraignment, and you didn't show up." McKee noted that Maloney had picked the date of that hearing. Maloney replied that he did not anticipate the issue of bail to come up at the hearing.
Perez's release on bond and the unusual public scolding were the latest twists in a case in which the two defendants each have been convicted twice by county juries of murdering Nirwan Thapar and his wife, Shashi, both 52, in September 1999 at their Bladensburg veterinary hospital.
Each of the convictions of Perez and Thomas Jefferson Gordon III, 23, has been overturned. Police and prosecutors have no physical evidence tying the defendants to the crime.
The only evidence they have are statements Perez and Gordon made to police.
The most recent appellate action came in April, when an appeals court threw out Perez's second conviction because McKee allowed prosecutors to use self-incriminating statements made by Perez. The court ruled that the statements were inadmissible because county police interrogated Perez for more than 24 hours before taking him to a court commissioner.
Prosecutors had said they would retry Perez, and Friday's hearing was held to schedule a new trial date: Feb. 26. At that hearing, the judge set bond at $100,000. It was what is known as a straight bond, which means only 10 percent of the total would have to be paid.
When Maloney learned McKee had set bond for Perez, he made his displeasure known to McKee's law clerk, Perez's attorney Thomas C. Mooney said in an interview.
But shortly after the bond was set, the bail bondsman hired by the Perez family said McKee had changed the bond to $100,000 in cash, Mooney said. That meant the family would have had to pay the entire sum, and Perez stayed in jail through the weekend.
Maloney requested yesterday's hearing so he could contest the bond, McKee said.
Maloney, chief of the state's attorney's homicide unit, said Perez should not receive a bond because he is a threat to public safety. But McKee eventually decided to go back to the original $100,000 straight bond. Perez was released after his family posted 10 percent of the total.
Naveen Chaudhary, 35, a son-in-law of the victims, arrived at the Upper Marlboro courthouse a few minutes after yesterday's hearing concluded. "This is pathetic," Chaudhary said. "It's a joke."
At the end of yesterday's hearing, McKee told Maloney that he owed the law clerk an apology. As he left the courtroom, Maloney turned to the young woman and said, "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings."
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Washington Post, Sunday, July 23, 2006; Page C01
By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Pr. George's Homicide Case Marred by Lapses
Dubious Decisions by Police, Prosecutors Leave Throat-Slashings Unsolved
When two men were slain and a third wounded in a knife attack last summer as they slept in a parking lot in the heart of Langley Park, Prince George's County police pressed hard to find the killer quickly.
Nearly a year after an arrest that helped calm a horrified community, a series of questionable decisions during the police investigation and the prosecution led to the mid-trial dismissal of charges this month against Edgar A. "L.A." Reyes. He was the only person arrested in connection with the Aug. 10 throat-slashing deaths of Cesar "Chapin" Mayorga, 27, and Anival Hernandez Escobar Cruz, 28.
Police did not interview the lone survivor of the attack, a potentially key witness, defense and prosecution lawyers say. The man simply checked out of the hospital within a couple of days and walked away. Detectives looked for him but did not find him.
Four months after the attack, police arrested Reyes, 31. Detectives had no fingerprints, DNA or other forensic evidence. They charged him on the basis of an accusation by a single alleged witness, the charging documents and court evidence show. That witness was a self-described unemployed crack smoker whom police found in a bar he frequents.
The lead detective on the case testified at Reyes's trial this month that the witness's "credibility problems" were such that he was initially treated as a suspect.
Then, in the middle of the trial, Assistant State's Attorney Clayton Aarons told Circuit Court Judge Sheila Tillerson-Adams that prosecutors had to drop the charges against Reyes because they had just become aware of police evidence that cast doubt on the veracity of their key witness.
The lead investigator, homicide Detective Gregory McDonald, obtained the witness's cellphone records in October, weeks before Reyes was arrested. But McDonald did not provide the records to prosecutors until a break in his trial testimony, prosecutors said. The records appear to undermine the witness's testimony and statement to police.
The investigative missteps make it doubtful that anyone will be held accountable for the killings, a law enforcement source said. Investigators have no new leads, said the source, who asked not to be identified because the case remains officially open.
A county police spokesman said department officials would not comment on the investigation.
State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey (D) was asked, in writing, whether he was satisfied with the investigation by police and his office. Ivey had Deputy State's Attorney Patricia W. Smoot reply: "The police gathered all of the evidence which was available." The weapon, a knife, was recovered but contained no forensic evidence, Smoot said.
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Washington Post, Friday, July 14, 2006; Page B09
By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Prosecutors Drop Case In 2 Throat Slashings
Prince George's County prosecutors yesterday abruptly dropped first-degree murder charges against a man accused of slashing the throats of two men in Langley Park last summer, a grisly attack that unnerved many people in that community.
On the third day of Edgar A. "L.A" Reyes's trial, Assistant State's Attorney Clayton Aarons told the judge that prosecutors had just read documents from the police investigation that contained evidence so contrary to testimony their key witness gave that they were forced to drop all charges in the interests of justice.
Circuit Court Judge Sheila Tillerson-Adams turned to Reyes, 31, who had joined his defense attorney and prosecutors for a conference at the bench. She apologized to Reyes for the time he had spent in jail since his arrest in December.
Tillerson-Adams also said she was "absolutely outraged" that the state would prosecute someone when it had information that directly contradicted its theory of his guilt. The comments, which were not fully audible to the entire courtroom, were related by defense attorney Thomas C. Mooney.
Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey (D), confirmed that charges against Reyes were dropped because the state's star witness, Oscar "Flaco" Molina, 23, gave testimony that was "inconsistent with what he had told police and prosecutors in previous meetings and statements before the trial." With no other evidence, the state was no longer confident of Reyes's guilt, Korionoff said.
The dramatic turn of events came an hour after the judge had halted the trial and directed prosecutors to hand over evidence the defense attorney had not received. Under Maryland law, prosecutors are required to give the defense exculpatory evidence.
When the attorneys and Reyes returned to the courtroom, the prosecutor asked for a bench conference and announced his office's decision.
During the previous hour, Mooney and a private defense investigator pored over about 250 pages of police reports and cellphone records, frantically trying to determine which documents the defense was entitled to and which papers might prove their client's innocence.
Mooney made two motions, one before the trial started and one during the proceedings, asking the judge to dismiss charges against Reyes because the state had not handed over the evidence.
Tillerson-Adams turned away the first motion and had yet to rule on the second when the charges were dropped.
One juror said he believed Reyes was on his way to an acquittal.
"I think the defense tore the prosecution apart. The main witness was not credible at all -- his story changed so many times. I thought it was very sloppy work by the prosecution," said the man, a 48-year-old mechanic who declined to give his name.
The bodies of Cesar "Chapin" Mayorga, 27, and Anival Hernandez Escobar Cruz, 28, were found about 6:30 a.m. Aug. 10 in the 8000 block of New Hampshire Avenue, near a Toys "R" Us store. Both had suffered deep cuts to their throats. A third man was stabbed but survived.
The state's key -- and only -- witness, Molina, testified that he saw Reyes accept a knife from a neighborhood drug dealer and then slash the two victims. Molina testified that he had turned down the drug dealer's offer of killing the two men in exchange for $100 worth of crack but that Reyes accepted the deal.
Under cross-examination from Mooney, Molina admitted that he smoked crack before allegedly witnessing the attack. Molina also disputed a written statement he had given police in which he said he saw two attackers. Molina said nothing about seeing a third victim.
Under direct examination by Aarons, Molina testified that the drug dealer called him on his cellphone the night of the killings. But cellphone records showed Molina received no such call, Mooney said.
"The investigation done by the police was incomplete and incompetent," said Sharon Weidenfeld, an investigator working for the defense. "The fact the state's attorney's office followed through by prosecuting Reyes is a disgrace."
Although Reyes no longer faces murder charges, federal immigration authorities have placed a hold on him, alleging that he is in the country illegally. Reyes is from El Salvador
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Washington Post, Friday, May 30, 2003; Page B03
By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Guilty Plea in Pr. George's Murder-for-Hire
Woman Sought Insurance Money
A Prince George's County woman admitted in court yesterday to hiring a man to kill her husband and promising to pay him with the proceeds of her husband's $1.1 million life insurance payout.
What she didn't know when she made that promise, authorities said, was that she apparently had never been legally married to the victim, D.C. police detective Garret A. Baxter -- or that police would quickly link her to the alleged hit man in September's slaying.
Nicolle Jackson, 32, pleaded guilty yesterday to first-degree murder for her role in the shooting death of Baxter at their Bowie home. Jackson has agreed to testify against Hayes Capers Jr., whom she said she hired to arrange the killing, .
Capers, 31, is scheduled to go on trial Monday in Prince George's Circuit Court on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy.
In exchange for the guilty plea, Prince George's prosecutors agreed not to seek a sentence of life without parole for Jackson. Instead, they said they probably would seek a life sentence, which would leave the possibility of parole.
Circuit Judge William D. Missouri scheduled sentencing for July 18.
Shortly after the Sept. 20 slaying, Jackson discovered that when she and Baxter were married two years earlier, his divorce from his first marriage was not final, rendering her marriage to him null and void, authorities said. She was arrested in late October.
The investigation into the murder is continuing. A law enforcement source said investigators believe Baxter was killed by more than one gunman. Jackson's plea agreement calls for her to cooperate with police in the investigation and prosecution of Capers and "any others" responsible for the slaying.
Jackson's plea reaffirmed the suspicion of Prince George's detectives that the slaying of Baxter was connected to his home life, not his life on the street as a police officer.
On the morning of Sept. 20, Baxter, 34, was found shot to death in the garage of his brick, two-story, half-million-dollar home. Jackson telephoned police and reported finding his bloody corpse lying amid spent shell casings.
A relative of Baxter's said he suspected that Jackson was involved in the murder until he saw her crying and shaking at the funeral, which was attended by hundreds of D.C. police officers in their dress blues. Jackson laid a single red rose on Baxter's casket, the relative said.
Jackson, dressed yesterday in red jail pants and shirt, displayed no emotion as Deputy State's Attorney Robert L. Dean read aloud a one-page statement of facts that Baxter had admitted to.
Dean said Baxter was shot in the back, twice in the left shoulder, once in the stomach, and once in the left eye. She said she had promised to pay Capers out of the insurance proceeds.
Records examined by police showed that Jackson had spoken with Capers extensively by cell phone in the weeks before the murder, Dean said.
When questioned by detectives Oct. 31, Jackson admitted she had arranged for Capers, whom she has known a number of years, to "procure" Baxter's murder, Dean said.
Working with police, Jackson agreed to meet with Capers on Nov. 1 at the Outback Steakhouse on Lottsford Road. As police watched, Jackson gave Capers $5,000 in cash as partial payment for arranging the murder of Baxter, Dean said. Capers was arrested that day.
According to court records, Jackson was in the process of filing for bankruptcy in the weeks before the murder. Jackson abruptly withdrew her bankruptcy petition a few days before the murder.
About a dozen friends and relatives of Baxter's attended yesterday's hearing.
"The family is greatly appreciative of the efforts of the Prince George's and D.C. police departments," said Jim Baxter, 54, Garret's eldest brother. Fighting to maintain his composure, he said, "It's hard to talk."
Law enforcement officials declined to comment on the nature of the relationship between Jackson and Capers. Jackson's attorney, Thomas C. Mooney, said that will be revealed when she testifies against Capers.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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Washington Post, May 29, 2003; Page B05
By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Pr. George's Murder Conviction Overturned
An appellate court has overturned the murder conviction of a Prince George's County man, ruling that his attorney should have been allowed to question a homicide detective about the detective's involvement in two previous cases in which investigators obtained false confessions.
The trial judge should have allowed the defense more latitude in cross-examining Detective Troy Harding, who testified that Richard W. Crosson, then 18, had confessed to wrongdoing in the 2001 shooting of a cabdriver, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled.
Crosson, in turn, testified that Harding manhandled him, ignored his request for an attorney, and directed him to write a crucial admission.
In two previous cases involving Harding, murder charges eventually were dropped. The FBI later launched an investigation into whether police violated the civil rights of the suspects the appellate panel noted.
Defense attorney Thomas C. Mooney should have been allowed to ask about those cases and the FBI probe, a three-judge panel of the appellate court ruled Friday. "Certainly a jury could believe that Harding had a personal incentive to avoid another dismissal or an acquittal that would cast doubt on his interrogation tactics," the panel said.
The ruling, spelled out in a strongly worded, 70-page opinion written by Judge Sally D. Adkins, could mean that prosecutors will have to try what they believed was an open-and-shut case for the third time.
The first trial ended in a mistrial in August 2001 when Harding, on the witness stand, revealed important evidence that up to that moment was unknown to the prosecutor and the defense attorney. Crosson was convicted of felony murder in a second trial in November 2001.
The Court of Special Appeals ruling for now applies only to the Crosson case, according to defense attorneys, prosecutors and judges. If the Maryland Court of Appeals, the state high court, upheld the ruling, it could open the door to defense attorneys across the state questioning police about alleged misconduct in previous cases, judges and attorneys said.
Officials with the state attorney general's office said yesterday that they had not decided whether to appeal the ruling to the Court of Appeals.
Regardless, the Court of Special Appeals ruling makes it likely that defense attorneys in Prince George's will try to attack the credibility of police investigators by questioning them about their conduct in previous cases, the county's administrative judge said.
"If you're a good defense attorney, you'll know about this decision, and you'll try to raise these questions," Circuit Court Judge William D. Missouri said.
Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn Ivey said the ruling does not necessarily disqualify Harding or other investigators whose conduct has been called into question from testifying for the state.
"Absent some intentional misconduct, no, it does not disqualify them," Ivey said. "Sometimes people make mistakes. Sometimes people do things the courts decide they don't like. Neither of those scenarios means an officer should not be used as a witness any more."
Harding said he disagrees with the appellate panel's ruling.
"I think it's a pretty stupid reason to overthrow a conviction," Harding said.
Regarding the two previous cases, Harding said neither of the men falsely confessed to him. "I feel good about my conduct in those cases," Harding said.
Harding helped question Keith Longtin, who was charged with murdering his wife in 1999 after providing a statement another detective construed as a confession. Harding also helped question Corey Beale, who in 1998 confessed to a murder he did not commit after hours of interrogation.
Prosecutors dropped charges against both men. Other suspects were charged and convicted in both cases. Longtin and Beale both filed suit against several officers, including Harding.
Crosson was accused of killing Jasbir Rajpal Singh, 46, during a robbery attempt.
The first trial ended in a mistrial when Harding flipped over the first page of the defendant's 11-page statement and referred to a sentence Crosson had written: "It was a robbery, not a murder!" Neither the prosecutor nor the defense attorney was aware of the statement until that moment.
The statement was crucial. Under Maryland law, someone who kills during a robbery can be convicted of felony murder and could be sentenced to life in prison. Crosson said the shooting was an accident.
At Crosson's second trial, Circuit Judge Herman C. Dawson allowed Mooney to ask Harding a couple of questions about his role in the Longtin case before sustaining objections from the prosecutor. Mooney was not allowed to question Harding about the Beale case.
Dawson should have given Mooney the chance to show that Harding's conduct in the Longtin and Beale cases gave him reasons to falsify his testimony that Crosson voluntarily admitted to trying to rob Singh, the appellate panel found.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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Montgomery Journal, July 16, 2002; Page 1A
By KELLY SMITH Journal staff writer
Man found guilty in stabbing death Defendant is acquitted of two first-degree murder charges, assault
A Silver Spring man was convicted Monday of involuntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of a woman at a Thanksgiving Day party last year, but was acquitted of more serious charges.
Douglas Guillermo Orellana, 23, of the 900 block of Northampton Drive, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the Nov. 22 death of 23-year-old Miriam Figueroa, but was acquitted of first-degree murder charges stemming from her death, as well as the death of Hector Castillo, 27.
He also was acquitted of charges of attempted murder and first-degree assault for allegedly stabbing Figueroa's fiancee, Herberth Ayala, 27, of Hyattsville.
A Montgomery County Circuit Court jury deliberated for several hours early Friday evening and for most of Monday before convicting Orellana of involuntary manslaughter.
Orellana will be sentenced at a later date.
Prosecutors said at the trial that Orellana walked into a fight among Ayala and a few other men and pulled out a knife.
But defense attorneys maintained Orellana was protecting himself from a knife-wielding Ayala, who he believed had stabbed his cousin.
They said Orellana had lunged out to stab Ayala, but instead caught Figueroa, who had stepped between Ayala and Orellana.
Prosecutors said the men were guests at a Thanksgiving party at a home in the 400 block of Southampton Drive in Silver Spring, where Figueroa rented a room.
About 8:30 p.m., Ayala was outside when three guests at the party jumped on him and started to punch and kick the man, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Orellana walked outside, saw the fight and pointed a knife at Ayala.
Figueroa, witnessing the fight, stepped between the two men and Orellana stabbed her in the side, puncturing an artery, prosecutors said. Figueroa ran back into the home.
After seeing Figueroa stabbed, prosecutors said Castillo, of the 8700 block of Carroll Avenue in Silver Spring, ran outside after Orellana. Prosecutors said Castillo was stabbed by Orellana several times and he fell to the ground in the courtyard "mortally wounded."
But defense attorneys said Orellana unintentionally stabbed Figueroa while trying to stab Ayala in defense of his cousin.
Orellana's cousin was injured in the melee and Orellana sustained injuries to his hand.
Orellana fled the scene, leaving a trail of blood, and later turned himself in to police at the urging of his wife, prosecutors said.
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Montomgery Journal
July 14, 2002; Page 1, Book A
By KELLY SMITH Journal staff writer
Jury deliberates in double murder case
A jury will continue deliberating Monday the fate of a Silver Spring man who allegedly stabbed two people to death at a Thanksgiving Day party.
Douglas Guillermo Orellana, 23, of the 900 block of Northampton Drive, is charged with murder in the Nov. 22 deaths of Miriam Figueroa, 23, and Hector Castillo Seqovia, 27.
Orellana also is charged with attempted murder and first-degree assault for allegedly stabbing Figueroa's fiance Herberth Ayala, 27, of Hyattsville, at the party.
"Douglas Orellana murdered Hector Castillo, he murdered Miriam Figueroa and attempted to murder Ayala," said Assistant State's Attorney Magdalena Bell in her closing argument Friday.
But defense attorneys said Orellana was defending himself from a knife-wielding Ayala, whom he believed had stabbed his cousin.
"Ayala was armed and he was facing Douglas and he was angry," said Thomas Mooney, Orellana's attorney.
Prosecutors said the men were guests at a Thanksgiving party at a home in the 400 block of Southampton Drive in Silver Spring, where Figueroa rented a room.
About 8:30 p.m., Ayala was outside when three guests at the party jumped on him and started to punch and kick the man, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Orellana walked outside, saw the fight and pointed a knife at Ayala.
Figueroa, witnessing the fight, stepped between the two men and Orellana stabbed her in the side, puncturing an artery, prosecutors said. Figueroa ran back into the home.
"Douglas had to see her coming," Bell said. "He doesn't give a damn that she's now a human shield."
After seeing Figueroa stabbed, Castillo ran outside after Orellana, who allegedly stabbed Castillo several times. He fell to the ground in the courtyard "mortally wounded," prosecutors said.
Mooney said Orellana stabbed Figueroa accidentally while trying to stab Ayala in defense of his cousin.
Mooney said Ayala chased Orellana from the scene with some kind of "pole-like object."
If the murder charges were true, Mooney said, Orellana may have tried to flee to his native El Salvador, rather than stay in the United States to defend himself.
"... [Orellana] could have easily been on his way back to El Salvador," Mooney said.
Orellana's cousin was injured in the melee and Orellana sustained injuries to his hand.
Orellana fled the scene, leaving a trail of blood, and later turned himself in to police at the urging of his wife, prosecutors said.
Mooney said Orellana went to police to tell his version of the story, but alleged that detectives did not write up the version of events as Orellana told them.
"Just because he's a police officer ... doesn't mean that they're being honest with you," Mooney said.
Prince George's Journal
September 7, 2001 Page 3, Book A
By ERIC HARTLEY Journal staff writer
Murder charges dropped against three men
Prosecutors lack sufficient evidence in two unrelated cases
Murder charges were dropped against three men in two unrelated cases yesterday because of insufficient evidence, State's Atty. Jack B. Johnson said.
One of the men, Edward Dante Wilder, was charged with five counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson in the June 7 fire that killed five people in Seat Pleasant.
The arson charge and four of the murder charges were dropped last month; the fifth murder charge was filed separately after another person injured in the fire died in a hospital. The fifth murder charge was dropped yesterday, the day a preliminary hearing was scheduled to occur.
Witnesses told police Wilder was at the scene shortly before the fire started, but prosecutors did not have sufficient evidence to proceed with a murder case, Johnson said in an interview with reporters at his office.
"No one can testify that he started the fire," Johnson said of Wilder. "No one saw the crime occur."
Wilder and another man suspected in the fire, Ronald Taylor, were also seen at the house during a fight about a week before the fire, Johnson added.
Wilder's lawyer, Thomas C. Mooney, said Wilder has a "rock-solid" alibi to explain his whereabouts on the night of the fire.
Taylor, who is in jail in Washington, has not been charged in the Seat Pleasant slaying, Johnson said.
Charges were also dropped yesterday against two brothers accused of shooting a man in Capitol Heights on New Year's Day. Leon Redd was found shot to death near a car; the interior of the car was splattered with blood, Johnson said.
The owner of the car, Michael Franklin, was originally arrested and charged with murder, but that charge was dropped at a preliminary District Court hearing, Johnson said.
Two men Franklin said had been in his car, Shawn Lomax and Marco Lomax, were charged with murder, but prosecutors did not have enough evidence to go forward, Johnson said.
"No one saw the shooting," he said. "We can't say who did what."
Last month, a Lanham man was acquitted of murder charges after his lawyer stressed to jurors that he was the fifth man to be charged in the same slaying. The lawyer called police and prosecutors "desperate" to close an unsolved case, and said one of the men previously charged and cleared was probably guilty.
The only evidence police had linking the Lomax brothers to the crime scene was the statement of Franklin, a man who had lied to police, said Shawn Lomax's lawyer, Steven D. Kupferberg.
Franklin initially said his car was stolen, but evidence showed he had loaned it to one of the brothers, Johnson said.
In court filings, Kupferberg accused prosecutors of not allowing him to speak to Franklin, the state's key witness, in violation of rules of evidence. Prosecutors said Franklin was afraid of the Lomax brothers and did not want his current address given out. He may have moved to Illinois since the shooting, according to court papers.
Marco Lomax's lawyer did not return a call seeking comment.
Johnson said he was "committed" to pursuing the case once police get more evidence against the brothers. DNA tests will be performed on a ski mask found in the car, he added.
Commenting on the cases dropped yesterday, Johnson said, "Sometimes you feel like you have the right people but you don't have the evidence."
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The Washington Post
By Ruben Castaneda Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 7, 2001; Page B05
Pr. George's Drops 2 Homicide Cases: State's Attorney Cites Lack of Evidence in Unrelated Arson, Shooting Incidents
Prince George's State's Attorney Jack B. Johnson announced yesterday that his office was dropping charges against suspects in two unrelated homicide cases because there is not enough evidence to take the cases to trial, even though in one case indictments had been returned.
In one case, charges were dropped against two men accused of setting a fire that killed five people in a Seat Pleasant home in June. In the other, first-degree murder charges were dismissed against two Capitol Heights brothers accused in the Jan. 1 fatal shooting of a 20-year-old man.
It was unclear why Johnson (D) chose to make the announcement yesterday.
Asked whether the decisions reflected concerns about the investigative work of two detectives whose testimony led to a mistrial in a murder case last week, Johnson said, referring to the case against the brothers: "The detectives are responsible for gathering the evidence in the case. Here, we don't have evidence in the case."
"We hate to have to drop these murder charges," Johnson said later in an interview. "These are serious cases. We have to get these killers off the street."
Johnson said investigators will continue to work on both cases and could refile charges if they find further evidence.
The dropping of the homicide cases is the latest in a series of recent setbacks for Prince George's police and prosecutors.
Last month, two county homicide investigators testified in a pretrial hearing that they ignored a slaying suspect's repeated requests to speak to a lawyer, and one of the detectives testified that he tried to obtain a confession from the defendant even though he had not interviewed any witnesses in the case and had little knowledge about the slaying.
Neither detective was called to testify about the interrogation during the trial, and the defendant was acquitted.
Last week, a Prince George's jury found a man not guilty of murder, and some jurors criticized the police investigation as a sloppy farce that should never have gone to trial. The defendant was the fifth person to be charged in that case but the only one who was tried.
Also last week, a Prince George's judge declared a mistrial in a murder case after homicide Detective Troy Harding testified that the defendant wrote an incriminating statement about the killing. Yet prosecutors did not know of its existence and did not inform the defense attorney, as they must under the law.
In the same case, another homicide detective, Gregory McDonald, testified that he did not write down two incriminating statements the defendant allegedly made. McDonald testified that the statements were so compelling that he knew he would remember them.
Harding and McDonald were also the investigators who brought charges against Marco Darrin Lomax and his brother, Shawn Randy Lomax, in the Jan. 1 slaying of Leon Lyron Redd. Redd was shot in the head and left in the road near Walker Mill Drive and Possum Court in Capitol Heights, according to charging documents.
Police first charged Michael Franklin in the shooting. But those charges were dropped after Franklin told detectives that he saw Redd get into his car with the Lomax brothers just before the shooting, according to court records. Franklin also told detectives that he saw the Lomaxes with a .38-caliber handgun before the shooting.
Police believe that Redd was shot in Franklin's car, Johnson said. However, investigators found no eyewitness to the shooting, have not recovered the weapon and have no forensic evidence -- such as blood, hair or fingerprints -- tying either of the Lomax brothers to the murder scene, Johnson said.
Prosecutors yesterday also dropped a first-degree murder charge against Edward D. Wilder, a Seat Pleasant man who had been charged with five counts of first-degree murder in connection with a June 7 arson that killed five people in that town.
Last month, prosecutors dropped four of the first-degree murder charges, according to court records.
Johnson said police and prosecutors have no evidence tying Wilder to setting the fire, in which gasoline was used, according to investigators. Prosecutors also dropped charges against co-defendant Ronald Taylor, Johnson said.
Wilder and Taylor blame each other for the fire, and that is the only evidence investigators have, Johnson said. Wilder remains in jail in Prince George's on an unrelated probation violation, and Taylor is incarcerated in the District on an unrelated charge, Johnson said.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
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The Gazette, Prince George's County
Friday Aug. 31, 2001
by Greg Johnson, Staff Writer
Mistrial declared after statement discovered
A mistrial was declared Tuesday in the case against a Forestville teen accused of killing a taxi driver after the prosecution discovered a note scrawled on the back of a police report - purportedly in the defendant's handwriting - that contradicted his defense attorney's courtroom statements.
The surprise document surfaced during the second day of testimony in the trial of Richard Warren Crosson, now 19, for felony murder and attempted armed robbery charges. Crosson is charged in connection with the Feb. 1 death of 46-year-old Jasbir R. Singh, whom police say was shot and killed during a failed robbery attempt near the Holly Hills Condominiums in Forestville.
In his opening arguments Monday, Attorney Thomas C. Mooney, who represents Crosson, said his client was contemplating suicide and never intended to rob Singh. Mooney said Crosson pulled out the gun and thought about shooting himself when Singh became frightened. Singh stepped on the gas, Mooney said, and the gun went off accidentally.
Singh died from a single bullet wound to the head. Crosson, who fled on foot after the shooting, was subsequently arrested Feb. 6.
Crosson was questioned by detectives with the Prince George's County Police Department after his arrest, Mooney said, and he never mentioned a robbery attempt to the officers.
The written record of this police interview contains statements written by both Crosson and Detective Troy Harding. The only portion of the report that mentions a robbery attempt is written by Harding, Mooney said, and was manufactured by officers who wanted to charge Crosson with a serious offense.
But the lead investigator on the case, Lt. Gregory McDonald, testified Monday that Crosson spoke about trying to rob Singh at least twice after he was arrested.
No notes were made about these comments, Mooney said, and no evidence about them was ever shown to defense attorneys before the trial.
So Mooney said he was "shocked" during the second day of testimony, when Harding turned to a short statement written on the back of the first page of Crosson's police interview. The sentence, scrawled in cramped letters, reads: "This was a robbery attempt not a murder!"
The statement was purportedly written by Crosson, and - if legitimate - would contradict Mooney's argument that the shooting was related to a suicide attempt and not a robbery.
Court rules require prosecutors to hand over all evidence that has been gathered against a defendant. Assistant State's Attorney Darlene Soltys, however, said that she did not notice the elusive sentence on the original statement and that she gave Mooney single-sided copies of the police report that did not include the remark. Soltys said both attorneys were given the original police report the morning before the trial.
Mooney said during an interview Tuesday, however, that he had never seen any evidence about this statement until the second day of the trial. The statement could have been added by police after the original report was completed, he said.
"It is my humble and lay opinion that that is not his writing," Mooney said.
Mooney, who did not accuse Soltys or the State's Attorney's Office of misconduct, said he believed prosecutors were as surprised as he was by the statement.
Mooney requested a mistrial and the motion was granted without opposition. Crosson remains jailed until a second trial set for Oct. 29. Mooney plans to ask that the controversial statement be excluded from the second proceeding. A motions hearing about the recently uncovered statement has been set for Sept. 13.
The trial was held in Prince George's County Circuit Court in Upper Marlboro. Crosson faces a possible sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted.
Armarjit Singh, who identified himself as a spokesman for the Singh family, said friends and relatives of the victim were not upset by the mistrial Tuesday.
Jasbir Singh was a pious and hard-working man who lived in Alexandria, Va. with his wife and two-year-old son, Armarjit Singh said. He was Sikh Muslim who came to America as a refugee about five years ago to escape religious persecution.
"He came and sought asylum," Armarjit Singh said. "He saved his life from the Indian government - and here a murderer was waiting for him."
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The Washington Post
By Ruben Castaneda Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 29, 2001; Page B01
Mistrial Declared in Murder Case Pr. George's Detective Produces Undisclosed Evidence
A Prince George's County judge declared a mistrial in a murder case yesterday after a homicide detective testified that the defendant wrote out an incriminating statement about the killing -- though neither the prosecutors nor the defense attorney knew of its existence. It was the second time in the trial that a detective testified about evidence that the defense attorney said later he believes might have been fabricated. Both instances involved alleged statements -- one a single sentence scribbled on a back page of an 11-page statement, the other never documented in any official paperwork -- in which detectives said Richard Warren Crosson admitted to police that he was trying to rob taxi driver Jasbir Rajpal Singh, 46, when he was killed.
Crosson, 19, made no such admission in the body of his 11-page statement to police, the one the prosecutor mentioned in her opening statements and the one turned over to Crosson's defense attorney. By law, evidence is to be turned over to the defense.
"It just reeks of something ugly," Crosson's attorney, Thomas C. Mooney, said of the testimony. "That one sentence is the most important piece of evidence, and it's the only piece of evidence that wasn't disclosed to me." Concerning the other alleged statement, which was never written down, Mooney said of the officer, "He baldfaced lied in court. It doesn't add up." Detective Gregory McDonald testified late Monday that Crosson twice volunteered a damaging admission concerning the Feb. 1 slaying of Singh. McDonald testified that he did not write down Crosson's alleged statements because they were so compelling that he knew he would remember them. Judge Herman C. Dawson permitted McDonald's testimony.
But yesterday, after Detective Troy Harding casually flipped over the first page of Crosson's 11-page statement and read what he said was Crosson's alleged admission -- written on the back -- Dawson granted Mooney's request for a mistrial.
Harding and McDonald did not return phone messages yesterday.
Statements by defendants and witnesses are typically handwritten, by either a detective or the person being interviewed, on one side of a sheet of paper. Prince George's State's Attorney Jack B. Johnson said in an interview that the lead prosecutor in the case, Assistant State's Attorney Darlene Soltys, was not aware of Crosson's alleged handwritten admission until Harding testified.
"It shouldn't happen, but it happened," Johnson said.
On Monday, when the original 11-page statement was admitted into evidence, it was provided to Mooney. Mooney said he quickly looked through the statement to make sure it was 11 pages but did not look at the backs of the pages. Harding testified that Crosson wrote a single line on the back side of the first page of his statement: "This was a robbery, not a murder." McDonald testified that Crosson twice admitted he tried to rob the victim. The alleged admission is important because prosecutors allege that Crosson fatally shot the cabbie during a robbery, which would constitute first-degree felony murder.
In his opening statement, Mooney did not dispute that Crosson shot Singh. He argued that the shooting was an accident and that Crosson never tried or intended to rob Singh.
On at least two previous occasions, questions about Harding's credibility allowed defendants to avoid convictions in Circuit Court murder trials. In April 2000, some jurors said questions about the detective's credibility were a key reason they deadlocked 8 to 4 for conviction in a case in which a young man was accused of fatally shooting a 17-year-old Landover Hills woman as she slept next to her baby.
In November 1998, a jury convicted Jeffrey Williams of involuntary manslaughter but acquitted him of first- and second-degree murder and other charges in a fatal beating in Langley Park.
One juror said she thought Harding didn't tell the truth when he testified that he didn't see a key witness -- whom Harding said he could not find -- in a small sandwich shop.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
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The Capital Annapolis, MD
Tuesday, January 16, 2001
By BRIAN M. SCHLETER Staff Writer
Time runs out: Judge dismisses man's charges
Ruling that prosecutors didn't bring the case to trial fast enough, a county judge has dismissed charges against a Prince George's County man who allegedly robbed a Crofton sandwich shop at gunpoint last summer. County prosecutors have asked the state Attorney General's Office to appeal Circuit Judge Eugene M. Lerner's Jan. 3 order dropping the 15-count indictment against Franklin D. Cawley, 53, of Lanham.
They contend the delay did not hurt Cawley, who is serving a 10-year sentence for a robbery in Prince George's County.
"He caused the problem. He sat on this for well over a year," said Assistant State's Attorney Warren Davis.
Cawley's attorney defended Judge Lerner's decision.
"The judge clearly stated my client was denied a speedy trial," Thomas Mooney said.
Cawley, his brother Leonard Cawley and Chester Geesling were arrested for allegedly robbing the Soda Pop Shop convenience store at 2299 Johns Hopkins Road on June 25, 1999.
According to charging documents filed four days later, Franklin Cawley pulled out a semi-automatic handgun and pointed it at store owner Jeffrey Sunstrom, who was standing behind the front counter.
Geesling pulled out a knife and they fled with more than $300 in a car driven by Leonard Cawley.
They were stopped in Prince George's County and were charged by authorities there with a Beltsville robbery as well. The Anne Arundel County Office of the Sheriff served Cawley with a detainer order once a warrant for his arrest was issued June 29 for the Crofton case.
But unlike his co-defendants, Cawley's case was delayed more than a year because it never moved from District Court up to Circuit Court.
The reason, prosecutors say, is that Cawley waited 14 months to file a request for a speedy trial. Cawley sent the forms to the State's Attorney's
Office and District Court clerk Aug. 18, the same day Geesling pleaded guilty to armed robbery and was sentenced to serve 15 years in prison.
From that point, prosecutors had 120 days to bring his case to trial. That window expired Dec. 18, and Cawley filed papers Dec. 28 asking the court to dismiss the charges.
At the Jan. 3 hearing, Mr. Davis argued that the delay actually worked to Cawley's advantage. For every day of delay, his case gets weaker as memories fade and witnesses die or move away.
"If anything, the delay hurt the state's case," he said.
When the judge ruled in Cawley's favor, state law dictates he should have dismissed the charges without prejudice, allowing prosecutors to recharge Cawley.
But Mr. Mooney said from the moment the detainer was served, the ball was in the prosecution's court. The system might be flawed, but because Cawley was being held on a detainer in prison, he was not eligible for some treatment programs. For that reason the judge made the right decision, he said.
"There should be some system in place whereby the Circuit Court gets notice immediately," he said.
Word that Cawley would not be tried greatly upset Mr. Sunstrom, who says he now carries a handgun to deter other would-be robbers.
"That's pathetic. It definitely bothers me that something like that can happen," he said. "You lose faith in the system."
Published 01/16/01, Copyright © 2001 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
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The Washington Post
Saturday, October 28, 2000; Page B05
By Ruben Castaneda Washington Post Staff Writer
Retrial Clears Md. Man Of '93 Double Murder
A Takoma Park man who spent nearly seven years incarcerated for a 1993 double murder walked out of Prince George's County Circuit Court a free man yesterday after a jury found him not guilty in a retrial. Raoul E. Hughes, 29, was acquitted of the June 29, 1993, slayings of Tyrone Finklea, 20, and his brother Raschon, 18. The two men were shot death in the 600 block of Fairview Avenue in Chillum, near Hyattsville.
Hughes was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and weapons violations in the slayings in May 1995 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 20 years.
Prince George's Circuit Court Judge G.R. Hovey Johnson granted Hughes a new trial this year, ruling that his defense in the original trial, provided by the county public defender's office, was ineffective.
After deliberating for a little more than three hours over two days, the jury in Hughes's retrial acquitted him yesterday of two charges of first-degree murder and other charges. Circuit Court Judge Maureen Lamasney ordered Hughes freed.
When the verdict was announced, Hughes became emotional, said Thomas Christopher Mooney, Hughes's defense attorney in the retrial. "Tears were coming from his eyes," Mooney said. "His mother was overwhelmed and very happy."
Mooney argued during the retrial that Hughes, who was friends with both victims, had no motive to kill the Finklea brothers. He told jurors that county police had arrested the wrong man.
Assistant State's Attorney Fran Longwell told jurors that a witness, who testified against Hughes, identified him as the killer.
The jury did not learn that prosecutors could not find much of the original evidence used against Hughes, including a photo array in which another witness allegedly picked out a photo of Hughes as the killer.
Mooney said there were questions about the photo identification that could have helped Hughes.
"Justice has been served in this case," Mooney said. Hughes is the second man to be acquitted of killing the Finklea brothers. Another defendant was acquitted in the mid-1990s. Hughes also was acquitted of another murder charge in Prince George's Circuit Court in an unrelated case in the early 1990s, according to court records.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
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The Washington Post
Crime & Justice, The District
Friday, February 18, 2000; Page B02
Complied From Reports by Staff Writers Bill Miller, Steven Gray, Ruben Castaneda, and Josh White
Suitland Man Acquitted in Slaying
A Prince George's County Circuit Court jury acquitted a Suitland man yesterday of first- and second-degree murder charges in connection with a Sept. 17, 1998, slaying.
After deliberating for about three hours, the jury acquitted Stewart Partlow Jr., 31, who was charged in the slaying of Mario Jackson, 23. Jackson was shot in an apartment building on Homer Avenue in Suitland, according to court records and testimony.
Partlow's attorney, Thomas C. Mooney, argued that police had arrested the wrong man. Of five witnesses called by Assistant State's Attorney Fran Longwell, only two identified Partlow as the gunman in their court testimony. Longwell argued that Partlow killed Jackson because Jackson owed him $600 for crack cocaine.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
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