2011 murder trial postponed due to appeal

2nd defendant to decide whether to retain lawyer due to possible conflict of interest concerns

A man accused of murdering a 29-year-old woman was scheduled to be retried this week, due to a jury returning a partial verdict in February; however, the defense appealed the case just days before the scheduled trial.

According to court documents, a notice of appeal was filed on Friday, Sept. 29, which goes to the Maryland Court of

Special Appeals in Annapolis.

The trial may or may not come back to Charles County Circuit Court, depending on the Court of Special Appeals’ decision, State’s Attorney Tony Convington (D) said.

Raymond Daniel Posey III, 25, of Nanjemoy was scheduled to be retried Oct. 2 on four counts the jury could not decide a verdict on: conspiracy to commit first-degree murder — which could carry a penalty of a life sentence — second-degree murder, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.

Back in February, the jury found Posey not guilty on nine of 13 counts, which included first-degree murder.

The murder of Crystal Anderson, 29, allegedly took place on July 26, 2011, when Posey allegedly shot her, and he and Darrayl John Wilson, 26, of Nanjemoy allegedly dumped her body into the woods over a guardrail near Purse State Park in Nanjemoy.

During the trial in February, witnesses said that they last

saw Anderson leaving a house party in Nanjemoy with Posey and Wilson that night. The state believes that the defendants drove Anderson from the party to Prince George’s County, where she picked up PCP from her supplier, which she regularly used and sold.

On the way back to the party, Posey and Wilson allegedly shot Anderson to death and threw her body over a guardrail, the state said. The state said in court that her death dissolved a $2,000 drug debt that Posey’s brother had owed her.

In February, the state called an inmate, who Posey had befriended in jail, who claimed to have told him the details of what happened the night of July 26, 2011.

The inmate testified that Posey told him that he and Wilson told Anderson that someone in the Purse State Park area wanted to buy PCP. After arriving in the area, Posey held Anderson at gunpoint and demanded her to exit the car and give him a few hundred dollars and four ounces of PCP before shooting her five times in the stomach and chest with a .32 caliber handgun, the inmate said. Wilson then picked her

body up and threw her over the guardrail, he said.

Since Posey has been in jail, he has been charged with dozens of counts of interfering with witnesses through letters and phone calls.

Posey is scheduled for a hearing in Charles County Circuit Court on Dec. 11, according to court records.

Posey’s co-defendant, Wilson, was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, armed robbery, first-degree assault, and seven other related charges for his alleged involvement in the murder of Anderson.

Wilson had a hearing on Oct. 4 due to an allegation of his attorney, Antoini M. Jones, having a conflict of interest.

Assistant state’s attorneys Francis J. Granados and Johnathan P. Beattie believe Wilson’s case has an “unwaivable conflict of interest.” Granados told the court Jones has interfered with the state’s “key witness,” who is also the recent wife of Wilson, by giving Wilson and her advice to marry. The state believes the motive of this marriage, which occurred on the “eve of Wilson’s trial,” to allegedly evoke her spousal

privileges not to testify against Wilson.

Granados argued that during several jail calls, Wilson and members of his family stated that Jones was giving them advice to marry his girlfriend at the time.

“It’s plain black and white, you can read the transcripts, listen to the jail calls of [Wilson and his family saying] that Mr. Jones told them how to do it and when to do it,” Granados said.

Granados said that during a jail call, one of Wilson’s family members tells him that his girlfriend called Jones asking about how to fill out and address the marriage license forms.

“That is interfering with a witness; trying to silence a witness is textbook sign of guilt,” Granados said.

Jones argued to the court that a previous case shows that “their motive and attempt to get married, and evoking spousal privilege, is irrelevant.”

He went on and said that the motive of Wilson and his girlfriend’s marriage is irrelevant to the use of spousal privilege.

Jones said that he had never offered Wilson’s girlfriend legal advice and that he did not initiate the marriage.

“The state is making inferences of what the author of the call said about the marriage,” Jones said. “It was clear that a family member initiated the marriage.”

Judge H. Jay West told the court that he was concerned about the conflict as well.

“Are we in a posture where, if [Wilson] gets convicted of something, what will happen is he will seek appeal, which is normal, and he could say that ‘my council had a conflict and that he could not represent my case fully,’” West said.

The state and the judge seemed to be concerned that having Jones remain Wilson’s attorney could result in an appeal and mistrial in the future, meaning they would have to go through the whole process over again.

“Since it is your case, I rather you make a decision,” West told Wilson.

West concluded the hearing by giving Wilson until Oct. 30 to receive advice from another attorney on how to move forward — whether he should keep Jones on the case as his attorney or if he should excuse him of the case.