TWO CHARGED IN HOPKINS TECHNICIAN MURDER ...
Tuesday July 27th 2010 6:33 AM
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Robert Lang, Steve Fermier and WBAL-TV
Baltimore City Police have arrested a man and a woman in the robbery/stabbing death of a Johns Hopkins University technician.
Late today, police arrested 34-year-old John Alexander Wagner, and 24-year-old Lavelva Merritt. Both had been questioned by police as "persons of interest." Both live in the 2700-block of Maryland Avenue.
Police say Stephen Pitcairn was stabbed as he was walking home along the 2600-block of St. Paul Street at around 11:30 Sunday night.
Police say it was an apparent robbery attempt.
Pitcairn was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he later died.
Dennis O'Shea, a spokesman for Johns Hopkins University confirmed that Pitcairn was a research technician and an employee of the School of Medicine, working in breast cancer research and wound care research.
Pitcairn was a 2009 graduate of Kalamazoo College.
He would have turned 24-years-old Tuesday, and was originally from Jupiter, Florida.
Police say Pitcairn was talking on the phone with his mother as he was attacked.
Pitcairn had just returned from a trip to New York and was walking back to his apartment from Penn Station.
Marty Burns of the state's attorney's office confirmed that Wagner had a list of prior offenses, including robbery charges that were dismissed and possible violations of his probation.
Burns said on Maryland's Morning News that in many cases police investigations are incomplete, victims do not show to testify, or courts simply dismiss charges, all of which hampers prosecutors in keeping convicted felons off the streets.
www.WBAL.COM
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