Three of five Baltimore County defendants charged in the October 2005 murders in Owings Mills of a man and his nephew agreed Tuesday to push their trial date back another six months.
A fourth defendant in the trial into the murder of Howard Thacker and his nephew, Dante Thacker already agreed to the postponement. The trial of a fifth defendant, Karl M. Sowers, 19, on murder, armed robbery and other charges, is still scheduled for May 22.
Sowers is charged along with Hakim S. Jordan-El, 21, Marcus D. Pettiford, 19, Brian M. Bartee, 19, and Kion J. Coulter, 27, in what police said was a robbery gone wrong. The latter four are scheduled for trial Oct. 16.
Howard Thacker?s girlfriend came home Oct. 1 and found him dead of a gunshot wound just inside the front door, according to court documents. Dante Thacker was lying facedown in the carpeted living room, dead of a gunshot wound, documents say.
Sowers refused to waive his right to a speedy trial, despite concerns that his attorney wouldn?t have enough time to review the state?s evidence before May. Unless his trial is postponed, Sowers will be tried separately from the others.
According to court documents, Baltimore County police pieced together the crime based in part on what they said was in a backpack they found that didn?t belong to either victim: a box of CVS-brand latex gloves.
After calling around, detectives located the one CVS store in the area that had recently sold a box of latex gloves. A store manager allegedly found a receipt from the latex gloves purchase in the parking lot and found surveillance video footage of the Sept. 30 transaction, the documents say.
Jordan-El was on the video buying the latex gloves, the court documents say, and his fingerprints were found on the receipt.
Bartee, Coulter and a witness had planned for a few weeks to rob Dante Thacker before the night of Sept. 30, charging documents state, when the witness decided at the last minute not to go through with it.
