May 31, 2012|By Justin Fenton, Kayla Bawroski and Kevin Rector, Baltimore Sun Media Group
When he asked Alexander Kinyua about the remains, Jarrod Kinyua said, his brother denied that they were human and said they were animal remains, according to charging documents. After calling his father downstairs, Jarrod and Antony Kinyua discovered that the remains had been moved and Alexander Kinyua was washing out the metal tins.
With a search-and-seizure warrant for the location, deputies were able to locate the head and hands on the main floor of the house, according to charging documents.
They also interviewed Alexander Kinyua, who allegedly admitted that he had killed Agyei-Kodie by cutting him up with a knife and then eating his heart and portions of his brain.
Kinyua also directed police to Towne Baptist Church, about a mile away in the 500 block of Trimble Road, where the rest of the remains were found in a trash container on the property, according to charging documents.
Bane said the remains were being sent for further analysis, to assure investigators that "we're dealing with one victim," Bane said. But officials said they did not have any reason to believe there were additional victims.
At Kinyua's first court appearance Thursday at Harford District Court in Bel Air, defense attorney Lynne McChrystal requested reasonable bail in the case, adding that Kinyua has been in Harford County for six years and in Maryland for nine years. She said he was self-employed, performing "consulting work."
Appearing via live video feed from prison, Kinyua wore a Harford County Detention Center uniform: a black-and-white striped pair of pants and matching T-shirt. Upon questioning by Judge John L. Dunnigan, Kinyua said that all of his family members lived in Maryland and that he was originally from Nairobi, Kenya.
Assistant State's Attorney Trenna Manners cited those out-of-country ties, as well as the "grisly" nature of the crime, when she asked for Kinyua to be held without bail, and the judge agreed.
Before May, Kinyua had no prior criminal record. In January, he was dismissed from the ROTC program after 2 1/2 years of participation, said Lt. Col. James Lewis, a professor of military service who oversees the program. Officials said it followed a disciplinary incident.
Then on May 20, Kinyua was charged with first-degree assault and reckless endangerment. In that case, according to police, Kinyua attacked another Morgan student in a doorway of the on-campus Thurgood Marshall apartment complex with a baseball bat, then fled into a nearby wooded area.
The victim, listed as Joshua Ceasar, suffered fractures to his skull, arm and shoulder, as well as blindness to his left eye. The first responding officer saw Ceasar stumbling toward her with blood coming from his forehead, and the officer noted a large amount of blood in the doorway.
Fabien, who said she knew Kinyua, said she saw him in the moments before the attack. She said he was sitting in a chair, clutching the bat. "He kept saying, 'Somebody has to protect the kids. I gotta protect the kids,'" she said.
Kinyua was ordered held on $220,000 bond in that case, and university officials said the school was in the process of expelling him. According to court records, two Baltimore residents posted property to secure bond for his release on May 23.
On May 25, what appeared to be a plea from his parents for help paying Kinyua's legal fees in the case was posted on Mwakilishi.com, a Kenyan news website. The post, which has since been removed, said Kinyua had been arrested for "being involved in a fight in his dormitory room at Morgan State University."
The online plea said, "In order to get him the best defense possible, we need to secure an attorney who will take his case and leave no stone unturned."
It also stated that a fundraising event was scheduled at the International Christian Community Church in Baltimore. The church was locked Thursday afternoon, and nobody answered a knock on the door.
Pictures on Facebook taken before this past semester show Kinyua with a wide grin at a laser tag event and showing off a blue jacket for the National Society of Pershing Rifles, a fraternal group for students in ROTC programs. Another shows him in military fatigues, standing at attention.
More recent posts to the social networking site reflected a shift. In the two most recent posts, Kinyua uploaded "QR Codes," bar code images that, when scanned with a smartphone, lead to a Web page. They both led to a message about something called "Project Crack the Code," promising "more information on survival of the human family."
Attempts to reach Kinyua's family have been unsuccessful. A man who answered the phone Wednesday night at a number listed for Antony and Beatrice Kinyua said they were resting and that the family did not wish to speak to the news media without an attorney present. On Thursday, no one answered the door of the Joppa townhouse.
