Police Say Teens Bragged About Killing Before Arrest

A 14-year-old boy fatally stabbed a Waldorf man last week during a robbery attempt as the victim and his brother were walking home from work, police in Charles County said Thursday.

Police have charged Trayzon Xsabain Harvey and his alleged accomplice, Benjamin William Thomas, 18, both of Waldorf, with first-degree murder in connection with the slaying of 30-year-old Jeremias Navarro Gutierrez on July 28. Harvey is charged as an adult.

The boys tried to rob Navarro Gutierrez and his brother, and the 14-year-old stabbed him when the brother put up a fight, authorities said. The crime occurred only a few hundred feet from the suspects' home, in the 900 block of Truro Lane.

Investigators tracked down the two teens by talking to neighborhood informants who had heard the pair brag about their crimes, said Diane Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Charles County Sheriff's Office. She said detectives eventually learned the boys' names, and when they interviewed Thomas, they noticed that he had a large bite mark on his arm. Navarro Gutierrez's brother, who identified himself to The Washington Post as Noe Navarro Gutierrez, 34, had told detectives that he bit his attacker, Richardson said.

"That's just something else that just sort of fit in with what we were looking for," Richardson said.

According to police charging documents, Thomas told detectives that the bite mark was caused by his girlfriend. The girlfriend, however, said she did not inflict the wound, the documents state.

Harvey was arrested early Thursday morning, and Thomas was arrested Wednesday, authorities said. Richardson said the two boys are believed to be connected to a larger group that had attacked and robbed two of the Navarro Gutierrez brothers' housemates about two weeks before the slaying.

The group, she said, apparently targeted that house because they knew that most of the people who lived there carried cash as they walked to and from work at the nearby Yums Grand Buffet. Investigators think the teens might have used the cash they stole to buy drugs, Richardson said.

"They wanted quick cash, and they thought that they were easy targets," Richardson said. "They just sat around and loitered and hung out and plotted to rob people who were vulnerable, hardworking people."

Charged in connection with the earlier robbery were Brandon Russell Hamilton, 22, of Waldorf; Janeal Jerome Thompson, 17, of Bryans Road; Hugh A. McClaugherty, 16, of Waldorf; and another male 16-year-old from Waldorf, authorities said. Police did not identify the last 16-year-old because he was 15 at the time of the attack and was charged as a juvenile. They said Thomas is also suspected of participating in that robbery, although he has not been charged.

Richardson said police found Harvey because he had talked about his crimes to others, and according to police charging documents he told detectives he stabbed Jeremias Navarro Gutierrez. She said police recovered several knives from his home, and it was "known throughout the whole neighborhood" that he was involved.

Investigators also recovered a knife from Thomas during his interview and recovered a bike on Truro Lane that they believe at least one of the boys stole hours before the slaying, according to Richardson and police charging documents.

"When you have a large number of people going out and committing these crimes, they talk, they brag, they don't mind telling people what they did," Richardson said. "And that talk carried over to people sharing information with us."

The two teens charged in the homicide are being held in the Charles County Detention Center without bond, authorities said. Efforts to reach their family members were unsuccessful.