October 16, 1997|By Andrea Siegel | Andrea Siegel,SUN STAFF
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals upheld yesterday the convictions of Lawrence T. Horn, who arranged the 1993 murders of his ex-wife, their quadriplegic and brain-damaged son and the child's nurse.
The three-judge panel rejected six issues raised by Horn's lawyers. The issues dealt with procedural rulings and whether evidence, such as information from Horn's wiretapped conversations and his videotaped deposition for a civil trial, should have been allowed as evidence in his 1996 murder trial.
"The jury was provided with overwhelming evidence of [Horn's] guilt," the judges wrote.
According to Montgomery County prosecutors, Horn, a former Motown Record Co. producer then living in Hollywood, Calif., was financially strapped and, upon the deaths of Mildred and Trevor Horn, he would inherit the 8-year-old's $1 million trust fund.
The child had suffered injuries at birth and the fund was created under a medical malpractice settlement.
The slayings occurred at the Rockville home of Mildred Horn. She and the boy's nurse, Janice Saunders, were shot through the eye. Trevor, who needed a breathing tube, died when his air supply was cut off.
James Perry, a Detroit minister, was convicted of the killings and sentenced to death.
A Frederick County jury found Horn guilty last year of three counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to three life terms without parole and one life term with parole.
Pub Date: 10/16/97
