So you’ve committed a crime and someone saw you do it. You know if they’re discovered, or worse, have already come forward, you have a problem. Getting them out of the way seems like a fantastic idea to clear your path to freedom, doesn’t it? If nobody can say they saw you, it all goes away. I mean, you were so skilled at getting away with the initial crime that certainly nothing else could possibly put you away.
Let me just start by saying that this is one of the worst ideas ever to enter the mind of someone who committed a crime. Committing a second crime is never the solution to getting yourself out of trouble and murder of a witness is almost certainly guaranteed to be a worse sentence than what you’re trying to save yourself from, but people still do it.
Witnesses are revered by prosecutors
You may perceive someone coming forward as a witness against to be the enemy but if you try to prevent them from testifying by causing them harm or causing their death, prosecutors will come after you with guns blazing. With the right criminal defense, witnesses can sometimes be destroyed on the stand or have their testimony excluded on a technicality. If there’s a chance that you could be found not guilty or even have the charges dismissed, you tamper with that by harming a witness. Once that comes to light – and it will – you’ll face new charges even if you escaped penalty from the initial crime you were charged with.
Murder for hire
If you don’t have the stomach to take out a witness yourself and you decide to hire or enlist someone who doesn’t mind, you now have an accomplice who stands to lose a lot once caught. This means your original problem of having a witness testify against you is amped up because suddenly you have someone you’ve solicited to commit murder on top of everything else. If you think the fact that the individual being involved in a murder plot will seal his or her lips, think again.
Solicitation itself used to be a misdemeanor charge in Maryland but in 2019, it became a felony carrying serious time. “Stacey’s Law” was passed and provides for a life sentence with or without the possibility of parole, depending upon the circumstances. If a deal means shaving time off a sentence or even just having the chance at parole someday, your accomplice is going to sing like a canary.
A Virginia man may not be completely out of the woods after being accused of a slew of crimes against a teenage girl who ended up dead before she could testify, including:
- Attempted rape
- Sodomy
- Attempted sodomy
- Strangling
- Abduction with the intent to defile
Felony murder
You might find that killing a witness won’t be the simple task you thought it was and it would require the commission of other crimes that will result in classifying it as a felony murder. Other crimes that you could end up being charged with while trying to carry out your plan include:
- Carjacking in order to gain control of the witness you intend to do away with.
- Kidnapping in order to get the witness to a more private location.
- Robbery if you decide to try to make the crime look random by taking property by violent means that ends in the witness being killed.
The girl’s murder resulted in the charges against him being dropped within the week, but his sister and two friends who carried out the murder now face murder and kidnapping charges. It’s possible related charges could be brought against the man if it is determined that he set the murder plot in motion.
In another case, a Maryland man incarcerated for the killing of a man in West Virginia is now facing kidnapping and first degree murder charges for luring two witnesses to that murder to their deaths. The witnesses were talked into leaving Maryland to stay in West Virginia under the guise of keeping them safe when the intent was to murder them to prevent their testimony.
If there’s a witness you need an attorney
Clearly if a witness was located who saw you commit a crime, you weren’t as careful as you might have thought. Think about that for a minute while you ponder the idea of taking that witness out of commission. If you were reckless in carrying out a lesser crime like drug dealing, do you really think you’ll pull off a murder without leaving any evidence trail behind?
There are ways of dealing with evidence so that it doesn’t ruin you, but only an experienced criminal defense attorney knows which evidence against you is likely to be tossed out and how to accomplish that. Even if evidence is allowed in, there are strategies to employ that can minimize its value or help create doubt.
Being arrested for a crime is serious enough on its own. You don’t need to add to your troubles by throwing a murder rap for killing a witness on top of it. You will get caught, you will be in much deeper trouble, and you may not have any chance of reclaiming your life once you’ve gone to those lengths. Problem solving is why you hire a good criminal defense attorney like Drew Cochran, Attorney at Law.
Drew has years of experience representing clients against criminal charges ranging from minor hiccups with drugs and DUI to serious felony murder indictments. If you have been arrested, you cannot afford to delay seeking your free consultation in my Annapolis or Ellicott City offices. Call me today at 410.271.1892 or reach out to me through my firm’s contact page.
And remember – Keep Calm, and Call Drew.
