A New Carrollton man has been indicted for his role in a 2008 triple slaying during a home-invasion drug robbery in Fairfax County, prosecutors announced Wednesday. Two brothers and a third man who rented a Springfield home together were fatally stabbed on Nov. 19, 2008. Federal prosecutors said that 34-year-old Delante T. Cook was indicted on robbery charges for his role in the slayings.
An indictment unsealed Wednesday charges that Cook and Jelani Slay committed the killings as part of a conspiracy to “obtain as much money and drugs as possible through robbery” by targeting Fairfax County marijuana dealers.
The pair scoped out the house on the 5400 block of Moultrie Road — which they targeted because they believed its residents were trafficking marijuana — during the two days before the robbery, the indictment says.
They dressed in “clothing adorned with law enforcement-related lettering and insignia” to gain entrance to the home while armed with knives, the indictment says. Police said at the time that witnesses reported seeing men wearing black clothing with the words “police” and “SWAT.”
During the robbery, three men — 26-year-old Ryan Strope, 38-year-old Terence Strope and 26-year-old Andres Yelicie — were fatally stabbed.
“Mr. Cook is accused of participating in a meticulously planned robbery that ended in the brutal stabbing deaths of three men in Springfield,” said Neil MacBride, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
“After surveilling their intended victims for days, Mr. Cook and others allegedly armed themselves with weapons, disguised themselves as police officers, robbed their victims in their home and then viciously stabbed all three to death,” MacBride said.
Lana Manitta, Cook’s attorney, declined to comment Wednesday.
Slay was shot and killed in 2009 by an off-duty D.C. police officer in a shootout during an attempted robbery.
Cook and Slay allegedly stole a cell phone and two laptop computers from the home during the robbery, the indictment says.
Cook could face up to 40 years in prison, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Cook was arrested without incident on Tuesday evening. He is in custody pending a detention hearing scheduled for Friday.
