Convicted killer denied second trial

Convicted last month of killing an Elkton woman, Charles Eugene Burns lost his bid for a new trial Tuesday.

Public Defender Lloyd Merriam argued that his client deserved to be retried because the jury might have been influenced by media attention before and during the April trial, where Burns was found guilty of murdering Lillian Abramowicz Phelps and leaving her body by the side of a secluded lane outside Havre de Grace last summer.