Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a 23-year-old man accused of orchestrating from prison the murder-for-hire of a Baltimore County man who had witnessed a killing in the city, according to a notice filed in U.S. District Court yesterday.
A superseding indictment alleges that Albert Byers Jr., of Baltimore, paid at least $2,500 to co-defendants to fatally shoot Carl Stanley Lackl in July 2007 outside his Rosedale home. Authorities have said Lackl had witnessed Byers shoot a man in an East Baltimore alley a year earlier.
Investigators used cell phone records to establish a link between Byers, who was in the Baltimore City Detention Center at the time, and Bloods gang members who carried out the hit, according to the indictment.
Three others charged in the case face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Reached yesterday, Lackl's mother, Marge Shipley, said her family agreed with the U.S. attorney's office's decision to seek the death penalty.
"I don't have my son. Why should those people have theirs?" she said. "My granddaughter doesn't have a daddy any more. It's been over a year since I heard my son say 'I love you.' "
Lackl, 38, an employee of a fencing company, was standing outside his home with two little girls on the evening of July 2, 2007, when he was shot after police said he was lured outside by the gunmen, who had told him they were interested in buying a car he was trying to sell.
The past year has been painful for his family, especially his longtime girlfriend and young daughter, his mother said. "He loved his baby more than life itself," Shipley said. "She's slowly forgetting him, and that's the way it's going to be. By the time she's 10, she's going to forget all those hugs and kisses."
Lackl was taking a lunch break from work when he happened to see one man fatally shoot another in a city alley in March 2006. He cooperated with investigators and prosecutors because he believed it was his moral and civic duty, family members said.
Although the city state's attorney's office said that prosecutors warned Lackl that he could be at risk, family members said that he was not aware that he was in danger. Lackl later identified Byers as the shooter of Larry Haynes, 30, according to court documents.
Claim of innocence
William Purpura, a defense attorney who represents Byers, said yesterday that his client maintains his innocence. "We still believe the facts of this case do not merit the ultimate penalty of death," he said. "We feel confident on the issue of guilt and innocence."
