A teenager on trial for his role in a knife attack on another teen outside a Columbia mall should not face an attempted-murder charge because he was not the one who stabbed the victim, the defendant's attorney argued yesterday.
The only crime committed by Cordero Dante Taylor, 16, was drug possession, Taylor's attorney, Gabriel A. Terrasa, said during opening statements in Howard County Circuit Court.
Taylor is one of two teens charged in the January attack on Julian Lichtenstein, a Baltimore County resident who was stabbed several times after a drug deal went bad in the parking lot of The Mall in Columbia.
A resident of Forestville in Prince George's County, Taylor also is charged with attempted second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, carrying a concealed weapon and reckless endangerment.
"None of these crimes, except for maybe the simple possession, were committed by Mr. Taylor," Terrasa told Judge Richard S. Bernhardt during his opening statement. "There's simply no evidence of willful deliberation or premeditation on the part of Mr. Taylor."
Prosecutors countered that the first-degree attempted-murder charge is warranted because Taylor was a co-conspirator in the crime and should be held equally responsible.
In the late afternoon of Jan. 8, Lichtenstein had arranged to sell marijuana to Taylor and Bernardo Leconte outside the J.C. Penney store at the mall, Lichtenstein testified yesterday. But after a quarrel over the quality of the drugs broke out, Leconte put the marijuana in his pocket and refused to pay for it, Lichtenstein said.
After Lichtenstein said, "I got you," and turned to summon a friend for help, Leconte, 18, a Columbia resident, pulled out a red-handled pocket knife. Lichtenstein, who testified to having been high on marijuana when he arrived at the mall, then struck Leconte in the face.
Accounts differ as to what happened next. Lichtenstein said Taylor shoved him into the knife, but Terrasa said that Taylor pushed Lichtenstein away because he was coming too close.
Terrasa also said that after Lichtenstein attempted to flee, Leconte, not Taylor, stabbed the victim repeatedly, even as he was lying injured in the grass and had given up his wallet. Lichtenstein was flown by helicopter to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he underwent surgery.
