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UPDATE: Opening Statements Held in Suburban Trial

Judge rules jury cannot hear forensic evidence prosecution called "critical" to their case.

Update, 6:30 p.m.: In opening statements Tuesday, the prosecution in the Suburban Hospital murder trial argued that Keith D. Little, accused of killing his supervisor Roosevelt Brockington, Jr., repeatedly said he was going to “get” Brockington.

Known to friends as Brock, Brockington was found in the hospital’s basement boiler room Jan. 1, stabbed over 70 times with a 12-inch knife protruding from the back of his neck.

“The defendant didn’t just say that he disliked the victim, Mr. Brockington, he didn’t just say that he couldn’t stand the victim, Mr. Brockington. The defendant said, ‘I’m going to get him,’” said prosecutor George E. Simms III.

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Simms said Brockington changed Little’s shift at Suburban in 2009, forcing him to resign from a job at the federal courthouse in Greenbelt – a union job that paid about $55,000 a year and offered good health benefits and vacation time. Little’s supervisor at the federal courthouse testified Tuesday, saying Little talked frequently about how upset he was about being treated “unfairly” by Brockington. Little had a “five-year plan” to use the two jobs to pay off his home, the supervisor testified.

Then, in November of 2010, Brockington gave Little a performance evaluation reprimanding him for his tardiness, Simms said. The evaluation, which rendered Little ineligible for a cost-of-living pay increase, indicated that Little could be fired if the behavior continued.

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“Now, a year later, the same person is talking about terminating him from his only remaining job,” Simms told the jury in opening statements.

Simms said the killing was a personal one, and that Little “hated” Brockington. He said Brockington was found with stab wounds in his face, neck, chest, shoulders and back. “The victim was repeatedly, brutally, viciously, violently stabbed to death by the defendant in this case,” Simms said.

Simms said the killing was an “inside job” by a hospital employee –he alleged Little knew the locations of security cameras and purposefully avoided them. The camera targeted on the door of the office where Brockington’s body was found had stopped working shortly before the murder, Simms said.

Brockington’s office, he said, was located behind eight locked doors, all requiring keys.

In their opening statements, the defense countered that the case against Little demonstrated an “abundance of speculation and an absence of facts.”

Police “jumped to conclusions” in accusing Little, failed to pursue several leads that may have pointed away from him, and ran into a series of “dead ends” in their investigation, said Ronald Gottlieb, a defense attorney for Little.

Brockington had reprimanded and fired other employees, Gottlieb said, who may have had reason to be angry with him. Gottlieb said female DNA was discovered on a mask at the crime scene, evidence that was never identified.

Other evidence that was discovered near the scene --  including a vodka bottle, a discarded condom, cigarettes and a lighter, a syringe, and a piece of cardboard with footprints -- was not properly analyzed, he said.  “Not a drop” of Little’s blood was discovered at the crime scene, and blood wasn’t uncovered inside Little’s home or car after a search, Gottlieb said. 

Additionally, a neighbor of Suburban Hospital saw a man wearing a mask walking “with a purpose” away from the hospital on the morning of the murder – a man who didn’t match Little’s description, according to Gottlieb.

There were two tragedies that resulted from the case, Gottlieb said – Brockington’s brutal death, and Little’s wrongful accusation.

Also on Tuesday, Suburban Hospital security guards and emergency physicians testified about discovering the bloody crime scene. “I saw him lying on the floor, in a pool of blood, with a knife sticking out of his neck,” testified longtime Suburban security guard Sherman Baptiste, who described himself as a good friend of Brockington’s. “I just stood there for a few seconds, because I was in shock.”

Baptiste was among the first to discover Brockington’s body.  Security footage played in court showed Baptiste and another security officer walking into the boiler room shortly before 10:30 a.m. Jan. 1, and running out for help shortly after.

Tracey Pyles, an emergency physician, testified about attempting to aid Brockington after being called to the boiler room. As she began to attempt medical treatment, “Someone said, ‘Hey, this is a crime scene,’” Pyles said in court. “I’m an ER doctor. I said, ‘No, this is a patient.’”

Brockington had bled to death by the time help arrived, prosecutors said.

Pyles said she removed the knife from Brockington’s neck so she could turn him on his back.

“I had to apply some pressure, some force to take it out,” Pyles said.

Brockington’s mother, Mary, also took the stand on Tuesday. She described the last time she saw her son – at a church New Year’s Eve service early that morning. Brockington, 40, had been a deacon at the family’s church on H Street in Northeast Washington, she said.

Simms asked Brockington if she remembered the last time she saw her son.  She replied, “He was putting us in the car. He was putting seat belts on us to make sure we were safe.”

Update, 2 p.m.: In a blow to the prosecution this morning, Judge Marielsa A. Bernard granted a new defense motion that bars an expert witness from giving an opinion that blood was found on a glove discovered at the crime scene.

The prosecution called that information "critical" to their case.

The jury was called into the courtroom after the judge ruled on the motion, and opening statements went forward in court this afternoon. The prosecution argued Little held a grudge against Brockington because Brockington had forced him to lose a second job by changing his hours at Suburban. Brockington, according to the prosecution, had also reprimanded Little for being late to work and told him if the behavior continued, he could be fired.

Little had repeatedly said he was going to "get" Brockington, the prosecution argued.

The defense countered that the case had an "abundance of speculation and an absence of facts."

Patch is reporting live from Rockville. This post will be updated.

Update, 11:30 a.m.: The jury has yet to be called into the courtroom in the Suburban Hospital murder trial as attorneys argue over whether the stain on a glove found at the crime scene is the victim's blood -- and whether or not the jury should hear testimony supporting that theory.

Keith D. Little of Lanham is a hospital maintenance engineer, who was found stabbed over 70 times in the hospital’s basement boiler room Jan. 1.

The prosecution has argued that Little used the gloves to kill Brockington, and then attempted to wash the evidence in chemicals. They have said their expert witness, Erin Farr, will testify that the stain found on the glove tested positive for blood and had a DNA profile that matched Brockington.

Steve Mercer, an attorney for the defense, agued in court this morning that recent "confirmatory" tests conducted on the stain proved the stain on the glove is not blood, and that previous tests conducted on the glove were not conclusive enough to prove the stain was blood. The DNA, he said, could have come from a different source -- such as saliva or mucous.

"This is a circumstantial evidence case for the state, and the state desperately wants to turn this brown stain into human blood," Mercer said.

Mercer argued that Farr changed her opinion after saying in November that the stain couldn't be proven to be blood to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty. He argued that testimony that the stain was human blood was "unreliable" and should not be admissable before the jury.

Robert Hill, arguing for the state, said that that lab experts used established procedures to test the glove and that the first two tests conducted on the glove proved the stain was human blood. He argued that Farr's testimony was critical to the state's case. He argued Farr should be allowed to introduce her opinion, where the defense would be free to challenge it in court.

"Everything I've heard Mr. Mercer say to you is the type of thing I would expect him to do in cross-examining my witness," Hill said.

Late Tuesday morning, Farr was being called to the stand to testify before the judge without the jury present in the courtroom. Opening statements had yet to begin.

Original post, 6a.m.: Opening statements are expected Tuesday morning in the trial of Keith D. Little, the man Roosevelt Brockington, Jr. at Suburban Hospital Jan. 1.

Brockington was discovered in the hospital's basement boiler room, stabbed over 70 times.

A Monday evening. Two men and a woman were also selected as alternate jurors.

The prosecution is expected to spend about a half an hour making its opening statements, to be followed by the defense, which will likely speak for about 15 minutes.

The prosecution is expected to finish calling its witnesses by Thursday afternoon.

Patch will be reporting live from the Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville during the trial this week. For real time updates, follow us on Twitter.

Editor's Note: This story has been corrected. In the original post, we misidentified the year of Keith Little's performance review. We regret this error.


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