A Baltimore District Court judge whose previous bail decisions have been questioned set bail Friday for a 31-year-old man accused of helping a pastor hire a hit man to kill a blind and disabled man for life insurance money.
Judge Nathan Braverman set bail for James Omar Clea III at $500,000 on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, use of a handgun in a violent crime, first-degree assault and related charges. A bail commissioner had ordered Clea held on no bond, and neither the city state's attorney's office nor other court officials requested a change in that status.
It is rare for suspects charged with murder to be allowed to post bail, considering public safety and flight risks. Braverman was criticized by the city police union last year for lowering bail for a man accused of murder. That man allegedly shot and robbed a 56-year-old man after being freed. A judicial selection commission this week forwarded Braverman's name to Gov. Martin O'Malley as one of several nominees to fill a Baltimore Circuit Court vacancy.
Clea was making his first appearance in a Maryland courtroom after being extradited from South Carolina.
Police say Clea helped pastor Kevin Jerome Pushia in the killing of Lemuel Wallace. Pushia, a former operations manager for the Arc of Baltimore, which assists people with developmental disabilities, told detectives that he persuaded Wallace and other disabled people under his care to list him as a beneficiary on their life insurance policies, and paid a hit man $50,000 to execute Wallace, according to charging documents.
Wallace was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head in a bathroom stall in Leakin Park on Feb. 4.
Clea acknowledged to detectives that he helped Pushia, but claimed he thought Pushia wanted to have someone beaten up, according to charging documents. Clea is on probation for his role in a May 2007 armed robbery of a Wendy's restaurant where he was working as a manager.
Despite the men's alleged admissions, detectives are unclear about what roles they played and have not ruled out the possibility that they carried out the killing themselves.
Braverman made no comments to support his decision to set bail for Clea, except to question a charge of "conspiracy to commit reckless endangerment," a charge Braverman said he did not believe existed.
