Three days after a witness Carl Lackl Jr. was fatally shot, the inmate who arranged the hit showed no remorse and even sought to arrange hits on other witnesses, federal prosecutors said in legal filings this week.
The Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty against inmate Patrick Byers, who allegedly ordered the murder of Lackl, 38, of Rosedale, preventing him from testifying in a Baltimore City murder trial.
“The defendant demonstrated a lack of remorse by, at least, telling conspirator Marcus Pearson in a phone conversation on July 5, 2007, that other inmates in the jail wanted Pearson to kill witnesses against them,” Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein wrote in a filing Tuesday.
Byers’ attorney, William Purpura, said the allegation was news to him.
“It would be an unrecorded phone conversation,” he said. “[Pearson] has given seven or eight varying statements as to what did or did not occur. He’s tried to endear himself greatly to the government; so this doesn’t surprise me. I’m sure we’ll get better statements as we go on.”
Purpura noted that Pearson, who was previously charged with murder in Baltimore County, but currently faces no charges since the federal government took over the case, helped arrange the crime.
“He actively recruited a 15-year-old and gave him $100,” Purpura said. “It certainly seems quite reprehensible — especially when they’re seeking the ultimate penalty — that someone who recruited a 15-year-old is not even charged. I don’t know how they can sleep with that decision.”
Byers, along with Frank Goodman, 22; Steven “L-Trigger” Thompson, 27; and Michael “L-Killa” Randle, 19, all of Baltimore City, are all charged with murdering Lackl, who happened upon a murder scene while getting lunch on March 4, 2007.
On July 2, 2007, the men obtained a loaded .44 magnum handgun and went to Lackl’s home, where a co-conspirator, Johnathan Cornish, 15, used the gun to shoot Lackl three times, killing him, authorities said.
Conspiracy members received a total of $2,500 as payment for the slaying, prosecutors said.
Cornish; Marcus Pearson, 26; Ronald Williams, 21; and Tammy Graham, 21, all of Baltimore City, are all charged in Baltimore County Circuit Court in the murder conspiracy but have not been federally indicted.
Marge Shipley, Lackl’s mother, said she is sure Byers is not remorseful.
“My son is not alive, why should he be alive?” Shipley said of Byers. “I haven’t heard ‘I love you, Mom’ in over a year.”
Cornish’s attorney, Warren Brown, said older Bloods gang members convinced his client to join the gang after Pop Warner Football season ended.
“I asked him, ‘Why did you join up with this gang?’ and he told me football season was over,” Brown said. “The opportunity to do something positive ended, and he joined something negative.”
U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey makes the final decision on whether Maryland’s federal prosecutors can pursue the death penalty against Byers.
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