Inmate Says He Warned That Md. Witness Was at Risk

Eight months before a key witness in a high-profile murder case was shot to death, a jail inmate warned Prince George's County prosecutors that the murder defendant planned to have a state witness killed, according to court testimony.

During a pretrial hearing in Circuit Court in Prince George's County on Tuesday, Amadu S. Jalloh testified that he had told Assistant State's Attorney Carol Coderre on Feb. 26, 2008, that Jamal G. Alexis intended to arrange for a witness against him to be killed. Alexis, 22, is charged with murdering music producer Raymond Brown, also known as Scottie Beats, in October 2006. Brown, 34, was killed as he tried to stop three men from using a tow truck to steal his Chrysler 300 from his Mitchellville home.

Jalloh testified that Alexis did not name the person he intended to have killed. Jalloh's defense attorney, James Zafiropulos, also testified at the hearing, corroborating Jalloh's account.

At the time he issued his warning, Jalloh was housed in the same county jail cellblock as Alexis.

Bobby J. Ennels, 22, who had agreed to testify against Alexis, was fatally shot in Landover on Oct. 7. A friend of Ennels's, Anthony Cash, 22, was also killed in the attack. Authorities said they think Cash was killed because he was with Ennels.

Last week, State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey obtained indictments against Alexis and his brother Rashadd Alexis, 20, charging them with conspiring to kill Ennels. Jamal was incarcerated when Ennels was killed. Prosecutors allege that Rashadd Alexis and another gunman, who is at large, killed Ennels at Jamal's request.

After Jalloh came forward, prosecutors and police warned Ennels to stay away from his usual haunts in Landover and Capitol Heights, according to a spokesman for Ivey and a law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

Ennels's attorney, Michael Lovelace, said Wednesday that authorities did tell Ennels to avoid the places he usually frequented but that "We never received any information about a specific threat."

For a while, Ennels, who had been living with his father in Capitol Heights, moved away to live with relatives in another part of the county, but he returned, Lovelace said.

According to the testimony of Jalloh and Zafiropulos, Jalloh disclosed the threat while meeting with Coderre about the charges against Jalloh, who is accused of the attempted murder of a Maryland state police officer, a charge that is pending.

Coderre referred questions to Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for the state's attorney's office.

"The first rule in witness protection: Stay away from the people who want to kill you," Korionoff said in a written response. "There's no program that will protect witnesses who won't follow that rule."

Jalloh testified that he had overheard Alexis being counseled by another inmate, Donnel L. Hunter, 38. Hunter, known as "Fat Rat," advised Alexis that if he eliminated the state's key witness, he would walk out of jail a free man, Jalloh said.

In secretly recorded jail conversations, which began to be taped by authorities in December 2007, Hunter said he was the gunman in a 2006 slaying in Temple Hills. A jury had acquitted him of the 2006 killing, but Hunter was subsequently convicted of a 2005 murder.

Jalloh testified in a hearing in which prosecutors are asking a judge to allow them to use Ennels's grand jury testimony against Alexis when he stands trial for killing Brown.

The Sixth Amendment gives defendants the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses against them. In 2005, the Maryland legislature passed a law allowing prosecutors to introduce into evidence the grand jury testimony of a slain witness if they can show "clear and convincing evidence" that the defendant is responsible for the witness being unavailable.

The hearing before Circuit Court Judge C. Philip Nichols Jr. is scheduled to conclude Thursday.