By Henri E. Cauvin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 21, 2006
One of the men charged with killing New York Times journalist David E. Rosenbaum pleaded guilty yesterday to murder and conspiracy charges.
The surprise plea by Michael Hamlin, just a month before the first trial in the case was to begin, indicates that he could testify against his accused accomplice -- a cousin, Percey Jordan.
Hamlin, 24, told a D.C. Superior Court judge that he and Jordan attacked Rosenbaum in January as the 63-year-old journalist was walking in his Northwest Washington neighborhood.
With Hamlin's family looking on from a few rows behind Rosenbaum's relatives, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, conspiracy and conspiracy to commit robbery -- offenses that collectively carry a maximum penalty of 60 years in prison.
But a long sentence is unlikely. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors will not seek a sentence above the maximum calculated under Superior Court's voluntary sentencing guidelines, which probably would mean a term of 15 to 35 years.
After yesterday's hearing, Rosenbaum's brother, Marcus, said it was important that Hamlin had taken responsibility. "Of course, none of this is going to bring my brother back," he added.
A long prison sentence, Marcus Rosenbaum said, will give Hamlin time to consider what he did. "We hope he will think about it -- as much as we're going to be thinking about my brother the rest of our lives," said Marcus, who was joined in court by his brother's adult children, Daniel and Dorothy. Already ill when her husband was killed, Rosenbaum's wife, Virginia, died in June.
Yesterday's hearing provided the clearest public account yet of what prosecutors believe happened shortly after 9 p.m. Jan. 6 -- an account that Hamlin confirmed in entering his guilty plea.
Setting out in Hamlin's car, Hamlin and his cousin went looking for someone to rob, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Haines said. Jordan had a lead pipe in a backpack and when they spotted Rosenbaum in the 3800 block of Gramercy Street NW, they came up from behind, and Jordan struck Rosenbaum in the head with the pipe, Haines said. With Rosenbaum on the ground, Hamlin took Rosenbaum's wallet from his pocket, she said.
The blow to the head would prove fatal for Rosenbaum, who died two days later.
Rosenbaum was semiconscious when firefighters and emergency medical personnel found him, and the succession of mistakes that followed in treating him -- at the scene, in the ambulance and at the hospital -- led to a public outcry and a withering critique by the D.C. inspector general's office.
As a result of the Rosenbaum case, one emergency medical services technician was fired and four firefighters are going through proceedings that could lead to termination, said Alan Etter, spokesman for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department. Two supervisors who were subject to demotion retired, and a third was put on administrative leave for 10 days, Etter said.
D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey also punished three police officers for shoddy work in the aftermath of Rosenbaum's death.
Widely respected among his colleagues and the people he wrote about, Rosenbaum recently had retired from the Times after more than 30 years at the paper. His memorial service at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill drew a number of notable Washington figures.
Hamlin and Jordan were arrested after police released security videotapes from two stores where someone used or tried to use Rosenbaum's stolen credit cards.
On Jan. 12, about an hour after the footage was provided to the media, Hamlin showed up at a D.C. police station, wearing the same industrial uniform that he appeared to be wearing in the video. He asked officers why his face was on television, authorities said.
When he was arrested, Hamlin was a driver for waste hauler Browning-Ferris Industries Inc. and lived with his mother in an apartment on Alabama Avenue SE, not far from the 7th District police station. It was not his first run-in with the law. In 2002, he was convicted of robbery in Prince George's County and sentenced to a year in jail, although all but three days of the sentence were suspended.
One day after Hamlin's arrest, Jordan, 42, turned himself in at the same police station. Both have been jailed since.
The men were eventually indicted on charges of conspiracy and murder after investigators linked them to a robbery in Silver Spring the night Rosenbaum was attacked.
The same indictment charged Jordan with the November 2005 robbery of a 72-year-old retired police officer, James Rose. It was a robbery that Rose said could have been solved long before Rosenbaum was attacked. Rose said that his cellphone was used to call relatives of both Jordan and Hamlin but that police never followed up on that lead.
The detective who worked on Rose's case was notified yesterday that he was being demoted to the rank of officer, officials said.
Judge Erik P. Christian set Hamlin's sentencing for Dec. 19, but Hamlin could be back in court before then if his cousin goes to trial next month as scheduled. As part of his plea agreement, he must testify for the government if he is called to the witness stand.
Speaking to reporters after the plea was announced, Hamlin's attorneys, Stephen V. Mercer and Steven D. Kupferberg, said that from the outset, Hamlin had wanted to accept responsibility for what he did.
Staff writers Allison Klein and Debbi Wilgoren contributed to this report.
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