Cyanide

An Ellicott City teen-ager accused of killing a Centennial High School classmate by spiking his soda with cyanide is scheduled to go on trial tomorrow in a case that his lawyer said has destroyed two young men's lives. With a reported confession from Ryan T. Furlough, 19, and a search that turned up cyanide packaging and labels in his home, the case likely will be a challenging one for defense attorneys. Even though his lawyers withdrew Furlough's insanity plea last month, they are expected to focus their efforts on their client's psychological state Jan. 3 last year - the day Benjamin Edward Vassiliev, 17, went into seizures while playing video games in Furlough's basement.

An Ellicott City teen-ager accused of killing a Centennial High School classmate by spiking his soda with cyanide is scheduled to go on trial tomorrow in a case that his lawyer said has destroyed two young men's lives. With a reported confession from Ryan T. Furlough, 19, and a search that turned up cyanide packaging and labels in his home, the case likely will be a challenging one for defense attorneys. Even though his lawyers withdrew Furlough's insanity plea last month, they are expected to focus their efforts on their client's psychological state Jan. 3 last year - the day Benjamin Edward Vassiliev, 17, went into seizures while playing video games in Furlough's basement.

Lawyers for an Ellicott City teen-ager accused of fatally poisoning a classmate last year by spiking his soda with cyanide have decided not to pursue an insanity defense. Instead, they hope that a Howard County judge will allow them to present evidence at trial that Ryan T. Furlough, 19, was so emotionally and mentally impaired at the time that he could not have willfully planned Benjamin Edward Vassiliev's death - and therefore could not possibly be guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, according to information presented in new court filings and during a court hearing yesterday.

The trial of an Ellicott City teen-ager accused of fatally poisoning a high school classmate with cyanide last year was postponed yesterday until May 10 after state mental health professionals said they needed more time to evaluate his state of mind at the time of the killing. Lawyers for Ryan T. Furlough, 19, have filed an insanity plea. Howard Circuit Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr., who is handling the case, said yesterday that officials at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, the state's maximum security mental hospital, are waiting for records detailing Furlough's psychiatric history.

An Ellicott City teen-ager accused of fatally poisoning a friend by spiking his soda with cyanide filed an insanity plea in the case yesterday. Lawyers filed legal notice claiming that Ryan T. Furlough, 18, was not criminally responsible "by reason of insanity" for the death of 17-year-old Benjamin Edward Vassiliev in January. "It's certainly one of the defenses we're considering in our representation of Ryan," attorney Joseph Murtha said after a brief hearing in Howard County Circuit Court.

Motions in the murder case of Ryan T. Furlough, the Centennial High School senior accused of fatally poisoning a classmate by spiking his soda with cyanide, were postponed yesterday after his lawyers said they are waiting for a psychological evaluation of their client. The evaluation will help attorneys decide whether an insanity plea is warranted, but it has been held up because the psychiatrist retained for the case has been in poor health, said Joseph Murtha, one of two attorneys representing Furlough.

Ryan T. Furlough, a Centennial High School senior accused of fatally poisoning a friend by spiking his soda with cyanide bought over the Internet, is scheduled for trial June 30 in Howard County Circuit Court. Furlough, 18, was indicted last month on charges of first-degree murder, poisoning, felony assault and reckless endangerment in the death of fellow Centennial senior Benjamin Edward Vassiliev, 17, last month. Authorities have said they think Furlough, a resident of the 3500 block of Rhode Valley Trail in Columbia, bought potassium cyanide over the Internet last fall and spiked Vassiliev's drink while the two played video games in Furlough's basement Jan. 3. Vassiliev died five days later.

Ryan Thomas Furlough, the Centennial High School senior accused of poisoning his friend with cyanide last week, was not assigned to write an essay from the point of view of a murderer, Howard County Superintendent John R. O'Rourke said yesterday. Furlough was told to "put himself in the shoes" of a murderer as part of a ninth-grade English assignment, his lawyer and mother said Monday. "There is no substance to the allegations that the assignment given to Ryan required him to write a composition from the viewpoint of a murderer," said O'Rourke in a news release e-mailed to The Sun on Tuesday.

Ryan Thomas Furlough, the Centennial High School senior accused of poisoning his friend with cyanide last week, was not assigned to write an essay from the point of view of a murderer, Howard County Superintendent John O'Rourke said yesterday. Furlough was ordered to "put himself in the shoes" of a murderer as part of a ninth-grade English assignment, his lawyer and mother said Monday. "There is no substance to the allegations that the assignment given to Ryan required him to write a composition from the viewpoint of a murderer," O'Rourke said in a news release sent by e-mail to The Sun yesterday afternoon.

A Centennial High School senior has been arrested on charges that he tried to kill a friend last week by putting cyanide in his beverage, Howard County police said yesterday. Ryan Thomas Furlough, 18, of the 3500 block of Rhode Valley Trail, Ellicott City, was charged Sunday with attempted first-degree murder and attempted poisoning. He is alleged to have put potassium cyanide in Benjamin Edward Vassiliev's soda Friday night as the two played video games at Furlough's home, according to charging documents.