COURT PROCEEDINGS

On March 9, 2009 at 9:30 a.m., in Baltimore, trial begins in RDB-08-056, U.S. v. Patrick Byers, et al, in Courtroom 5D. Patrick Albert Byers, Jr., age 23; Frank Keith Goodman, age 22; Steven Thompson, a/k/a L-Tigga, Trigger, age 27; and Michael Jerome Randle, a/k/a L-Killa, age 19, all of Baltimore, are charged for the murder of Carl Stanley Lackl on July 2, 2007. According to the allegations in the nine count superseding indictment, the co-conspirators murdered Mr. Lackl in order to prevent him from testifying against Byers in a Baltimore City Circuit Court case and in other proceedings involving Byers’s alleged possession of a handgun on March 4, 2006. Byers, who was in the City Jail at the time of the murder, offered to pay $2,500 for the murder of Mr. Lackl. The superseding indictment alleges that Byers used a contraband cellphone to contact other members of the conspiracy to kill Mr. Lackl. The charges include conspiracy to use telephones in the commission of a murder-for-hire; use of telephones in a murder-for-hire; use of a firearm in a murder; conspiracy to murder a witness; murder of a witness; and conspiracy to use a firearm in a crime of violence. Byers is also charged with illegally possessing a firearm on March 4, 2006, having previously been convicted of a felony crime; and use of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Goodman, Thompson and Randle face a maximum penalty of life in prison. The government is seeking the death penalty for Byers. Jury selection is expected to last a week. The trial is expected to last four to five weeks.

On March 16, 2009, at 3:00 p.m., in Greenbelt, Courtroom 4A, Jayrece Turnbull, age 34, of Bowie, Maryland, is scheduled to be sentenced in case AW-08-007. Turnbull, who is the niece of co-conspirator Harriette Walters, pleaded guilty to her participation in a property tax refund scheme in which over $48 million was stolen from the District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue. Turnbull admitted that over $24 million in fraudulently obtained government checks was deposited into accounts she controlled. She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for receipt of stolen property; 20 years in prison and a fine of $500,000 or twice the value of the transactions involved, whichever is greater, for conspiracy to commit money laundering; 30 years for mail fraud; and five years and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gain or loss, whichever is greater, for tax evasion.