A 56-year-old Mount Airy contractor accused of fatally beating a Taylorsville psychologist was released from jail last night, hours after a Circuit Court judge reduced his bail from $1 million to $150,000.
Randall Henry Gerlach of the 13000 block of Manor Drive in Frederick County was arrested June 5 and had been held at the Carroll County Detention Center in Westminster. He is charged in the killing of Rodney R. Cocking, 59, a researcher and program director at the National Science Foundation whose remains were found in a wooded area of Frederick County four months after his disappearance.
$1 million amounts to no bail at all, meaning the defendant cannot post that amount, said Judge Luke K. Burns Jr., who also ordered that Gerlach be placed under a home-detention program and the court's pretrial services upon release.