Murder victim's father testifies at resentencing

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Apr 30, 2007 by Cynthia Di Pasquale

The father of the 8-year-old murder victim testified Friday at Jamaal A. Abeokuto's sentencing hearing, one of 10 witnesses called by the state.

Marc Ringo said he spoke with Abeokuto on the morning Marciana Ringo was killed in December 2002. Abeokuto, who was dating the mother of Ringo's two children, told Ringo that Marciana was already on her way to school.

Instead, Abeokuto kept Marciana out of school that day, drove her to Joppa, slit her throat and left her body in the woods to be found by two middle school students.

Abeokuto was convicted of the crime in 2004, but his death sentence was reversed on appeal.

At the new sentencing hearing, Harford County State's Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly is again seeking the death penalty. The current jurors must assess the evidence and weigh aggravating factors against mitigating factors in determining an appropriate sentence.

In addition to Marc Ringo, a neighbor testified Friday that she had seen Marciana get into Abeokuto's car on the morning of Dec. 3, 2000, rather than walk to the elementary school located directly across the street from her apartment complex as she usually did.

A co-worker told jurors Abeokuto arrived about an hour late to work at CNS Wholesalers - a grocery supplier located in Aberdeen. He usually arrived at 8 a.m.

Marciana's third grade teacher and the principal of Northwood Elementary School both testified the girl wasn't in school on the day of the murder.

"She was an excellent student - top of the class," her teacher, Rachael Prevette, said of the victim. She usually arrived on time, but had been absent for three days by Dec. 3, so Prevette left a message for her mother, Milagro White, she said.

White was "frantic" when she responded to the message as she realized something was wrong, Prevette said.

A Baltimore police officer who responded to the apartment testified, as did one who searched Abeokuto's car and found a gun hidden in a compartment in the trunk.

A third officer told jurors about a ransom letter White received two days after Marciana Ringo disappeared.

The envelope was addressed to "Hello." The letter read, "Tell Starks I want 5,000."

The letter, displayed on a projector screen for the jury to see, directed Marciana's grandfather to put the money in a bag and leave it in a men's bathroom in Druid Hill Park. Otherwise, the girl would die, it threatened.

"Let's just say we even - an eye for an eye," it read.

Former Baltimore City Detective Gary Hoover said the police department set up surveillance outside of the bathroom, but nothing happened.

The state will continue presenting its case Monday morning.

The matter is being heard in Baltimore County instead of Harford County because Abeokuto requested a change of venue for the original trial.

He was convicted and sentenced to death following a bench trial before Baltimore County Circuit Judge Thomas J. Bollinger.

The Court of Appeals overturned the sentence last year since it wasn't clear Abeokuto had voluntarily and knowingly waived his right to jury sentencing. He was on an anti-psychotic drug at the time, which may have caused confusion.

This time around, Abeokuto asked that a jury sentence him. Judge Patrick Cavanaugh is presiding over the case.