Witness Says He Stood By as Cousin Beat Reporter

By Henri E. Cauvin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 20, 2006

It was as if David E. Rosenbaum sensed something in the darkness of Gramercy Street NW.

The 63-year-old journalist, out for a stroll near his home, stopped and looked around for a moment, one of the men accused in his death testified yesterday. But Rosenbaum didn't see anything, and by the time he did, it was too late.

Seconds later, Percey Jordan jumped Rosenbaum from behind and began beating the retired New York Times reporter with a heavy plastic pipe, Jordan's cousin said in D.C. Superior Court.

"Give it up, old man, give it up, old man," Jordan yelled, according to his cousin, Michael Hamlin, who testified in the second day of Jordan's trial before a jury in Judge Erik P. Christian's courtroom.

"It took him by surprise because it happened so quick," Hamlin said of the attack, which unfolded about 9 p.m. Jan. 6 in the 3800 block of Gramercy.

Jordan struck him twice in the head and three times in the torso, Hamlin said, and Rosenbaum staggered and crumpled to the sidewalk as Hamlin rushed in and ripped Rosenbaum's wallet from his hip pocket.

Two days later, Rosenbaum succumbed to his wounds, and a few days after that, the men suspected of killing him turned themselves in to police after store surveillance images linked them to the crime.

Not until yesterday had Hamlin, 24, provided a public account of what he says happened that night. Dressed in dark blue jail-issue shirt and pants, Hamlin sounded contrite at times, at one point choking up and pausing to regain his composure.

Facing his cousin across the courtroom, Hamlin, who pleaded guilty last month to murder, laid the worst acts of that night on Jordan -- an accusation that Jordan's attorney, Michael Starr, has assailed as a self-serving lie.

Hamlin kept changing his story during his interrogation by police in January, authorities said, and Starr said his testimony is only the latest in a series of fabrications.

Hamlin insisted yesterday that he was telling the truth. He said the trouble began after he came home from his job at a trash hauling company, took his mother to her Friday night card game and set out on a ride with his cousin, listening to oldies music along the way. "Let's go, cuz, let's go, cuz," Hamlin recalled Jordan, 42, telling him that night once they reached Wisconsin Avenue. Hamlin's planned dinner in Bethesda with a lady friend could wait, but the robbery Jordan was itching to do could not, Hamlin said he was told.

"I gave him a look, but I agreed to do it," Hamlin said during questioning by the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Haines.

In the darkness, in a corner of the District unfamiliar to him, Hamlin became disoriented, he said, when he pulled his Cadillac into Rosenbaum's quiet Northwest Washington neighborhood. Looking around, Jordan said he wanted to break into some of the "nice houses," Hamlin told the jury. But Hamlin told his cousin he wanted no part of any burglaries, he said yesterday.

Then, Hamlin said, they saw Rosenbaum, who had taken a walk after dinner in hopes that the cold winter air would cure him of his hiccups.

But before the cousins could strike, a woman walking her dog entered the block, prompting Hamlin to move his car to distract her, Hamlin said.

Jordan got out of the car and slipped behind a tree, the plastic pipe -- previously reported to be a metal pipe -- hidden in his sleeve, Hamlin said. About that time, Rosenbaum, who was wearing headphones, paused to look around, Hamlin said.

Accosted by Jordan, Rosenbaum resisted before the blows from the pipe sent him falling, Hamlin said. Darting in to steal Rosenbaum's wallet, Hamlin heard the murmurs of a dying man. "He mumbled, but I don't know what he said," Hamlin said yesterday.

After divvying up the cash -- $265 or $275 -- and the credit cards, Hamlin said, his conscience weighed on him. "I looked at my cousin, and I just stared at him, and I thought about it, and I said, 'It wasn't right.' "

Taking a last look at the man they had attacked, Hamlin was tempted to try to help him, he said yesterday. But he didn't. "I thought he was going to recover from his injuries," he said. "I didn't think he was hit that hard."

So they left him there. A neighbor found him and called for help. Initially believed to be intoxicated and not seriously hurt, Rosenbaum was treated as a low medical priority.

An investigation by the city found that emergency medical personnel failed Rosenbaum at almost every turn. As they sped off, Hamlin and Jordan didn't know the damage they had done, Hamlin said.

According to prosecutors, the cousins then went to the 1200 block of Woodside Parkway in Silver Spring and robbed a woman in her 50s before making their way back to Southeast Washington, where they lived and where they went on a shopping spree using the cards stolen in the two robberies.

Security cameras captured them in a CVS and a Safeway, where they filled their baskets with laundry detergent, fabric softener, body lotion, deodorant and jumper cables, Hamlin said.