Jailed and awaiting trial on armed robbery and attempted murder charges, a 19-year-old Middle River man is facing new charges that he arranged to have two witnesses in that case killed.
Joshua Anthony Mumford was arrested Monday night and charged with two counts of soliciting first-degree murder, court records show. Police persuaded Mumford's cellmate at the Baltimore County Detention Center to wear a digital recording device, which captured Mumford refusing suggestions that the witnesses could be kidnapped and held for a while rather than killed, according to court documents.
"Mumford declines, saying that the state will only postpone the case and will charge him again after the witnesses return," Baltimore County police wrote in the statement of charges filed in District Court. "He reiterates that he wants the witnesses murdered."
FOR THE RECORD - A headline yesterday incorrectly described the initial charge against a Middle River man who, according to court records, has additionally been charged with two counts of soliciting first-degree murder. The man was initially charged with attempted murder.
The two witnesses, 19-year-old Ramin Atri and 20-year-old Kosmas Koukoulis, were shot - allegedly by Mumford - on Oct. 21 in White Marsh when Mumford tried to steal money and four pounds of marijuana from the men, whom he had met earlier that night, court records state. They were expected to testify at the Feb. 28 trial of Mumford and two co-defendants - Angelo L. Mumford, 21, and Dustin C. Fifer, 21, both of Middle River.
"I'm shocked and I'm worried," said Atri's mother, who asked that her name not be published for fear that her family might be harmed. "I don't know if they'll shoot me or my family."
The arrest is the most recent example of what county prosecutors say is an increase in attempts to interfere with witness testimony in Baltimore County criminal cases.
"It is my experience that traditionally we have not had a problem with witness intimidation in Baltimore County," said Jason G. League, an assistant Baltimore County state's attorney. "However, times are a-changin'."
League prosecuted a murder case last year in which the defendant, Christopher A. Bacote, was accused of threatening witnesses. Charges of obstruction of justice were dropped, however, when Bacote pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and a handgun charge for fatally shooting a Morgan State University student after a college party in October 2003 at a Timonium bowling alley.
Bacote, 20, of Baltimore was sentenced in November to 50 years in prison.
