The Maryland judge who sent homicide suspect Donte T. Paige to Denver said yesterday he would have ordered the man's return months before the killing had he been told about his alleged disciplinary troubles.
Paige, 22, was charged Friday with killing Peyton Tuthill, 24, after she interrupted a robbery Feb. 24 in her home in the City Park area of Denver. He had been sent from Maryland to Denver to attend a drug treatment school.
Paige has been incarcerated in Prince George's County since being accused of robbing a Laurel convenience store three days after Tuthill's death.
An aide to Denver County District Attorney Bill Ritter said Paige has been charged with first-degree murder, felony murder, sexual assault, aggravated robbery and first-degree burglary in the Tuthill case.
"We will extradite him certainly, and for the victim's case quickly," said the aide, who asked not to be named.
An extradition date will be announced after Ritter, who was out of town yesterday, speaks with Prince George's County State's Attorney Jack B. Johnson. The prosecutors also will decide whose charges Paige will face first. Johnson said through an aide yesterday that he had not looked into Paige's case, but hopes to do so today.
Paige had been serving a 10-year sentence at Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown for two armed robberies when Circuit Judge Joseph S. Casula released him in October to attend Stout Street, a drug treatment school in Denver.
Casula said yesterday he usually grants most drug addicts permission to leave jail and attend a drug treatment school.
"I will say yes in most cases, if they really are drug addicts," the judge said.
After completing a treatment program, the felon is supposed to appear in front of the judge who granted the plea. The judge then decides whether the felon returns to jail or receives supervised probation.
Casula said he had heard nothing about Paige from Stout Street until March 4, when his office received a fax that identified "Donte as a constant disciplinary problem." The letter also informed him that Paige entered the program Oct. 15, left Oct. 19 and returned Oct. 20, pleading for readmission. Later it read, "He broke another cardinal rule and grabbed a female [patient] Donte never followed any of the rules."
The letter said Paige had been asked to leave Stout Street on Feb. 23 after he threatened a staff member.
Pub Date: 3/23/99
