MARYLAND BRIEFING

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Slaying Suspect Captured

A suspect wanted in connection with a recent slaying in Silver Spring has been taken into custody by authorities in Texas, Montgomery County police said yesterday.

Jose L. Zavala, 29, of Silver Spring is awaiting extradition to Montgomery, where he will be charged with first-degree murder, police said.

On July 27, police were called to the 4400 block of Gridley Road, where they found Fausto B. Orellana, 43, who had been struck in the head with an unknown weapon. Orellana died of his wounds Aug. 2. Two weeks ago, police arrested Jose F. Hernandez, 35, and charged him with being an accessory after the fact in the crime.

Investigators learned that Zavala, another suspect, had fled to Texas, police said.

-- Dan Morse

CHARLES COUNTY

Driver in Slaying Convicted

The man who drove the getaway car after a fatal shooting in Waldorf in October was convicted yesterday of second-degree murder, the charge faced by the man who said he pulled the trigger.

William Coates, 29, was accused of driving a friend, James F. Swann, after Swann shot 71-year-old Joseph Hickman as he stood on a porch. Swann, 33, said at his trial in June that he had shot in Hickman's direction in an attempt to shoot at someone who he thought had molested his sister.

Defense attorneys argued that Coates had no knowledge of the shooting and that Swann was the man to blame. Prosecutors hinged their case on the fact that police pulled Coates's car over, with Swann in the passenger seat, as he was apparently driving out of the neighborhood where the shooting had taken place.