A prosecutor in the trial of a Timonium teen-ager accused of involvement in the slaying of a Towson mental hospital counselor told a jury yesterday that when Jane Frances DeCosta learned from Benjamin Scott Garris that he was going to kill someone, she replied, "OK. Cool."
But DeCosta's lawyer told the Baltimore County Circuit Court jury that "what this sick and evil boy was up to" was beyond the grasp of DeCosta, a mentally ill 16-year-old -- especially because none of the experts at Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, where he was staying, knew anything of his homicidal plots.
And defense attorney M. Cristina Gutierrez said that Garris "talked and drew death all the time" -- raising questions about whether DeCosta took his claims seriously.
DeCosta, who has been in the Baltimore County Women's Detention Center for 18 months, is charged with being an accomplice and accessory in the slaying of Sharon Edwards, a 26-year-old single mother from North Baltimore, on Oct. 8, 1995.
Edwards was working her first shift as an overnight counselor at Fordham Cottage, the halfway house where Garris was living, when Garris stabbed her 26 times, dragged her under a pool table and poured lighter fluid on her body. He later fled the mental hospital to Virginia Beach, Va., with DeCosta.
Garris was convicted of the killing and received a life sentence without the possibility of parole July 15.
Yesterday's court proceedings moved swiftly before Circuit Judge Barbara Kerr Howe.
In her opening statement, Gutierrez tried to steer focus from DeCosta -- then a 15-year-old runaway who had attempted suicide and suffers from attention deficit disorder -- and onto Garris.
Prosecutors began their case by presenting evidence designed to show DeCosta knew about Garris' plan and acted in ways that would help him complete it.
Baltimore County Detective Thomas M. Lau Jr. testified that while he was sitting in a room with DeCosta on Nov. 2, she told him without any provocation, "You know, I'm responsible. I got the gasoline and the knife for Ben."
DeCosta allegedly gave a soda can of gasoline and an 8-inch hunting knife with a 4-inch blade -- the weapon in the slaying -- to Garris.
Baltimore County Police Detective Carroll Bollinger, who led the investigation of both Garris and DeCosta, testified that, after being told of her right to silence and legal representation, DeCosta told him that she knew the gasoline was going to be used for arson intended to kill his housemates in the halfway house.
He said DeCosta also told him that she didn't mind if staff members died as a result and she knew of Garris' murder plot for a month ahead of time.
Gutierrez cross-examined Bollinger at length about his procedure in getting the statement. He acknowledged that it was taken after DeCosta had once declined to talk to police, that neither her parents nor an attorney was present and that she was not under arrest at the time.
Gutierrez will continue cross-examining Bollinger today in the trial, which is expected to include DeCosta's testimony and conclude next week.
Pub Date: 1/15/97
