A U.S. Marine Corps private from North Potomac charged with the murder of his father Christmas night was ordered held without bail Thursday when a Montgomery County District Court judge found him to be a threat to his family and the public.
David Winters, 18, sat erect and expressionless throughout the hearing, answering questions from the judge and his lawyer with soldier-like shouts of “Aye, sir!”
Winters joined the Marines in August but was home on leave Tuesday.
Andrew Winters, 55, was found dead of multiple stab wounds late Tuesday night in Muddy Branch Park in Gaithersburg. David Winters says he was walking with his father on the 11000 block of Darnestown Road when several men attacked the pair, according to the police report. But the report describes much blood, dirt and debris on David Winters’ clothing, inconsistent with the minor wounds he suffered to his hands duringthe alleged sidewalk attack.
Barry Helfand, Winters’ attorney, argued for a reasonable bail so he could attend his father’s funeral, to be held Friday morning at Rockville’s Temple Beth Ami.
Outside the courtroom, however, Helfand said there was “no way” Judge Gary G. Everngam would have let that happen.
In the hearing, Helfand criticized the prosecution’s charge as short on incriminating details. “I’m not sure where the evidence is,” he said. “We’re absent a weapon, a statement or an eyewitness.”
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy commended the judge’s order but refused to comment on evidence from the ongoing investigation: “[Winters] is a danger to this community. It was proper to hold him without [bail],” he said.
Winters faces a life sentence without parole; the crime does not qualify him for capital punishment, McCarthy said.
Neither attorney would comment on Winters’ psychological history, but Helfand alluded to unknown issues that caused Winters to leave Rockville’s Thomas S. Wootton High School and go to a Pennsylvania boarding school.
“I had the impression that Andy was doing everything he could to find the right situation for his son,” said Brian Taylor, who lives two houses down from the Winters. “He never discussed the details or a negative side. I suppose you could guess from the moving around that it wasn’t always easy.”
