Indictments Obtained in Death of Music Engineer

Prince George's County prosecutors announced Friday that they have obtained indictments charging the man accused of killing a well-known music engineer with conspiring with his younger brother to kill a key state witness.

The indictments allow prosecutors to try to use the slain witness's grand jury testimony at the trial for the accused killer.

At a news conference outside the Upper Marlboro courthouse, State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey announced that a county grand jury late Thursday indicted Jamaal G. Alexis and his younger brother, Rashadd Alexis, on charges that they conspired in the October shooting death of Bobby J. Ennels.

Ennels, 22, was fatally shot as he sat in the driver's seat of a car in a residential area of Landover. Another man, Anthony Cash, also 22, was also fatally shot in the car and the Alexis brothers are charged in that killing him as well.

At the time of those killings, Jamaal Alexis, 22, was in jail, awaiting trial on charges he murdered Raymond Brown, a music engineer also known as Scottie Beats, in October 2006. Ennels had been scheduled to testify against Jamaal Alexis.

In court papers, prosecutors allege that Jamaal Alexis told another inmate that his brother and another man killed Ennels. According to court papers filed by prosecutors, three days after Ennels was killed, Jamaal Alexis told the inmate that his brother "did what he was supposed to do."

Prosecutors have filed a motion seeking to allow them to introduce Ennels's grand jury testimony in Jamaal Alexis's trial in the Brown slaying.

Typically, defense attorneys have the right to cross-examine a state witness. But under a 2005 Maryland law, prosecutors can introduce the grand jury testimony of a slain witness if the state shows "clear and convincing evidence" that the defendant was directly responsible for making the witness unavailable -- such as arranging to have the witness killed. Generally such testimony is not allowed unless the witness appears in person. The Sixth Amendment allows those charged with crimes to confront the witnesses against them.

A hearing on the state's motion is scheduled for next week, Ivey said.