Two Men Indicted in Shooting Death of Witness

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 of the accused killer.

At a news conference outside the Upper Marlboro courthouse, State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said that late Thursday a county grand jury indicted Jamaal G. Alexis, 22, and his younger brother, Rashadd Alexis, 20, on charges that they conspired in the shooting death last October 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. Anthony Cash, a 22-year old man in the car with Ennels, was also shot and killed, and the Alexis brothers are charged in that killing as well. Prosecutors said they think that Cash was killed because he was with Ennels.

At the time of those killings, Jamaal Alexis was in jail, awaiting trial on charges that he killed Raymond S. Brown II, a music engineer also known as Scottie Beats, in October 2006. Brown was fatally shot as he tried to prevent the theft of his Chrysler 300, which was parked in front of his Mitchellville home. Jamaal Alexis is in jail, awaiting trial in Brown's slaying.

Prosecutors think Ennels acted as a lookout. He pleaded guilty to a theft charge, testified for the state before a grand jury and agreed to testify against Jamaal Alexis at trial.

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.

Generally, such testimony is not allowed unless the witness appears in person so that defense attorneys can cross-examine them: The Sixth Amendment gives defendants the right to confront witnesses against them. 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.

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

Attorneys for both Alexis brothers did not immediately return phone calls. A phone message left at Rashadd Alexis's address in Landover was not returned.

Brown, 36, was killed about 2:30 a.m. Oct. 13, 2006. He left his house when he saw his car being towed and followed in his wife's car, according to police charging documents. Moments later, Brown got out of his wife's car and approached the tow truck. Jamaal Alexis, sitting in the tow truck, fatally shot Brown, the charging documents allege.

Ivey said this is the first time Prince George's prosecutors are seeking to use the 2005 law. Ivey said he thinks that the statute -- by allowing prosecutors to use the grand jury testimony of a slain witness -- will remove the incentive defendants have to intimidate or target witnesses.