A jury has begun deliberating in the trial of a Suburban Hospital maintenance worker accused of killing his boss in the Bethesda health center’s basement boiler room.
The Montgomery County Circuit Court jury of seven women and five men began deliberating shortly after 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The jury is deciding the fate of 50-year-old Keith D. Little. Prosecutors allege that Little stabbed 40-year-old Roosevelt Brockington Jr., his boss and the hospital’s lead engineer, more than 70 times on New Year’s Day. Little was upset about a schedule change and poor performance review, according to prosecutors.
The jury is considering charges of first-degree murder, first-degree felony murder and second-degree murder.
First-degree murder is a killing that is willful, deliberate and premeditated. First-degree felony murder is a killing committed during another felony crime; prosecutors do not have to prove that suspect intended to kill the victim. Prosecutors contend that Little also tried to rob Brockington. Second-degree murder is a slaying committed with the intent to kill or cause serious bodily injury, but does not have to be deliberate or premeditated.
The first-degree charges are punishable by life in prison; the maximum penalty on the second-degree charge is 30 years.
Little was also charged with killing a coworker in the District in 2003, but was acquitted in a jury trial.
