Police investigating the fatal shooting of a Rosedale man who had been a key witness in a Baltimore murder case announced yesterday the arrest of a third suspect -- a man who had previously been charged numerous times with drug-related offenses.
Marcus Antwan Pearson, 26, with no known address, is charged with first-degree murder in the July 2 killing of Carl Stanley Lackl.
Pearson is accused of calling Lackl about a car that the Rosedale man was selling to lure him outside of his home, according to charging documents. After showing the way to Lackl's house, Pearson and his girlfriend looked on from a shopping center parking lot as Lackl was shot, and they remained there as police and paramedics arrived at the home, the documents state.
Police last month arrested a 15-year-old West Baltimore youth accused of firing the fatal shots and a 21-year-old Baltimore man described as the driver of the car used in the shooting. Baltimore County police said yesterday that the investigation was continuing and that detectives were trying to determine a motive for the killing.
In the past decade, Pearson has been arrested at least 10 times and charged with numerous crimes, including second-degree assault, armed carjacking and manufacturing and dealing drugs, a search of public court records shows.
However, many of the charges against Pearson were dismissed, and in other instances he was convicted of lesser charges.
Pearson's lengthy criminal record underscores the frustrations that prosecutors often deal with in the city, said Margaret T. Burns, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office.
"I feel very strongly that our prosecutors worked very hard to prosecute these cases, but it's clear from the record that had there been more exhaustive investigations, they could have yielded stronger cases," Burns said. "Either [Pearson] had the technique down and he's very good at it, or we were never able to fully prosecute what could have been a very strong case."
In early 1999, just a few days before he turned 18, Pearson was sentenced to two years' probation for drug possession. He was charged with crimes in six other incidents that year -- including an armed carjacking -- and was found guilty of violating his probation and sentenced to one year in jail in November 1999. In May 2000, Pearson was back on the street and was arrested on a marijuana possession charge. The case was later dismissed.
