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Thread: Thomas Leggs, Jr. Pleads Guilty in 2009 MD Murder of 11-Year-Old Sarah Foxwell, Avoids Death Penalty

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    Thomas Leggs, Jr. Pleads Guilty in 2009 MD Murder of 11-Year-Old Sarah Foxwell, Avoids Death Penalty

    Sheriff to seek death penalty in murder of Sarah Foxwell

    SALISBURY - Wicomico County authorities said they intend to seek the death penalty in the case of an 11-year-old Maryland girl whose body was found on Christmas Day, two days after police say she was abducted by a registered sex offender.

    "If there is ever a case that screams for the death penalty, it is this case," Sheriff Mike Lewis said Monday.

    A judge denied bail Monday to Thomas Leggs Jr., 30, of Salisbury, who was arrested on charges of kidnapping and burglary in the disappearance of Sarah Foxwell.

    A younger sister awoke Tuesday night to see Sarah leaving her bedroom with Leggs, a former boyfriend of their aunt, who is the children's guardian, according to court records. Sarah's green toothbrush, which was missing, was found in Leggs' truck, records say.

    Sarah's death has been ruled a homicide, but no further charges have been brought against Leggs, authorities said. It could take up to 45 days to bring additional charges, State's Attorney Davis Ruark said.

    "I anticipate that [the case] could go before a grand jury," he said.

    Police said they are not searching for any other suspects in the girl's disappearance. "We're confident we have our suspect in custody," Lewis said.

    Leggs is being held in segregation in Wicomico County Detention Center.

    An autopsy is continuing on the body, which was found after a search involving 3,000 police and volunteers.

    Sarah's funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Emmanuel Wesleyan Church in Salisbury. Officials with Holloway Funeral Home have said anonymous donors offered to pay for the funeral.

    Leggs was convicted of a third-degree sex offense in a 1997 case involving a 12-year-old girl who was volunteering at a "haunted woods" just before Halloween. In Delaware, he is listed as a "high-risk" sex offender in connection with the rape of a minor in 2001.

    http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bal-md.girl29dec29,0,86454.story?track=rss

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    Suspect in Girl's Death Could Get Death

    ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Lawmakers in Annapolis are moving forward with plans to close legal loopholes that allow convicted child sex predators out of jail on good behavior.

    In the meantime, authorities said Tuesday they intend to seek the death penalty for Thomas Leggs. He is the child predator connected to the kidnapping and death of 11-year-old Sarah Foxwell.

    Her body was found Christmas Day. On Tuesday, the medical examiner's office determined the sixth grader died from multiple injuries.

    Sheriff Mike Lewis says if ever there is a case that screams for the death penalty, this is it. Still, others wonder why he was out of jail in the first place.

    The 31 year old is a registered sex offender in Maryland and Delaware with multiple convictions. Some say he should have stayed behind bars. The brutal crime ignited a firestorm of cries for tougher sentencing for sex offenders.

    Maryland State Senator Nancy Jacobs (R-DST 34) says the proposal is already filed and will be introduced in two weeks.

    "We've been saying it's a no-brainer for years. It's a shame there has to be a tragedy like this to draw attention to this. Sometimes it's what it takes in Annapolis," said Jacobs.

    Police say Thomas Leggs Junior-- a registered sex offender-- kidnapped the girl from her Salisbury home, and is now suspected in her death.

    Jacobs complains that child sex offenders like Leggs are not serving the 25-year minimum sentence mandated by law. They're getting out of jail for good behavior.

    Lenient judges are now in the hot seat.

    "They may be model prisoners, but they're not model citizens," said Jacobs. "They believe it takes away their discretion they don't want politicians interfering in their court room and that's how they do it. They come down and testify against these bills."

    Leggs has a lengthy record. He was convicted in Maryland in 1998 for child sex offenses. The child predator was also convicted in 2000 for the sex assault of a 12 year old.

    In 2001, he pleaded guilty in Delaware to rape of a teenager. Leggs served one year in jail of the 7-year sentence.

    Jacobs, who sponsored "Jessica's Law" which mandates minimum sentences, believes there will be a public outcry over the loophole.

    "It is not truth in sentencing. Twenty-five years in jail should mean 25 years in jail and not 17," Jacobs said. "The public believes if you're sentenced to 25, it's a mandatory sentence-- no parole. They should stay there."

    Lawmakers are also expected to explore changes to the sex offender registry. As for the case, court records indicate a younger sister awoke to see Leggs leaving with the registered child sex predator last Tuesday night.

    Court records indicate the girl's toothbrush was also found in Legg's truck.

    Prosecutors say it could take 45 days before more charges are filed.

    Sarah Foxwell's funeral is scheduled for Saturday.

    http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/local/sarah-foxwell-thomas-leggs-murder-case-122909

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    More Details Released On Case Against Leggs


    On Wednesday, the latest in the case being built against Thomas Leggs, Jr. will be announced.

    However, on Tuesday night, Wicomico County state's attorney Davis Ruark went on the record with WMDT about the investigation.

    Ruark said, "This'll be a unique case in that it's a murder case but it also carries the potential for the death penalty. There are very few death penalty cases that are brought in Maryland anymore."

    While Ruark says he could not release the specific charges being brought against Leggs at this time, Ruark believes there is significant evidence in the case that will qualify the consideration of the death penalty.

    Leggs is currently in custody without bond.

    The registered sex offender has been charged with kidnapping and abducting 11-year-old Sarah Foxwell, whose body was discovered on Christmas Day.

    (source: WMDT News)

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    1 execution in Wicomico's past
    Death penalty notice for Salisbury murder suspect hints that strict evidence requirement met


    SALISBURY --The last time a Wicomico County man was executed, a gallon of gas cost 15 cents, Harry Truman was in office and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was just a plan.

    But if Wicomico prosecutors have their way in the case of Thomas James Leggs Jr., the death penalty will no longer be a relic.

    The State's Attorney's Office recently filed a notice to seek the death penalty in a murder case, marking the first of many steps toward reserving a seat on death row for a dual-state sex offender charged in the kidnapping, sexual assault and brutal murder of a young girl.

    Leggs, 30, was served the death penalty notice Friday, even though no trial date has been scheduled at this time. Prosecutors seeking the death penalty are required to file written notice at least 30 days before the trial under state law.

    The death penalty notice is the latest legal maneuver by the state on its quest for justice for 11-year-old Sarah Haley Foxwell of Salisbury, whose badly burned body was found in a rural Delmar area on Christmas Day 2009. Shortly after, public outcry called for Leggs' execution.

    "If there's ever a case that screams for the death penalty, it's this case," said Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis during a previous news conference. "We all believe this case screams for the death penalty."

    On Feb. 8, less than two months after Foxwell's body was found, a grand jury indicted Leggs on murder, kidnapping, sex offense and burglary charges. If convicted and sentenced to death, Leggs would be one of two death row inmates tried in Wicomico County. Jody Lee Miles was convicted in the murder of a Salisbury theater manager in 1998.

    If executed, he would be only the second Wicomico man within the last six decades to be punished by death. In 1947, Weldon Jones Jr., 18, was hanged after he was convicted of murder.

    Five Maryland prison inmates are currently on death row, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

    Prosecutors have disclosed very little about evidence against Leggs; however, the death penalty notice offers a few clues as to the building blocks of the state's case. In January, Wicomico County State's Attorney Davis Ruark estimated 200 items of potential evidence had been sent to the Maryland State Crime Lab. While Ruark declined to give specifics about the items sent for analysis and the results of the tests, state law requires prosecutors to present the court or jury with biological or DNA evidence that links the defendant to the murder, a voluntary video recording of the defendant confessing to murder or a video recording conclusively linking the defendant to the murder.

    Altogether, 18 defendants tried and convicted in Eastern Shore counties have been executed, according to data from the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Their executions account for about 21 percent of the 85 Maryland executions since 1923.

    All but one defendant convicted on the Eastern Shore were executed by hanging, according to information the DPSCS. In an attempt to make executions less of a public spectacle, state legislators passed a law that banned outdoor hangings within the counties and moved them inside of the state penitentiary in 1922. The first person hanged inside the state facility was 21-year-old George Chelton of Somerset County on June 8, 1923. Chelton had been convicted of rape.

    More than three decades would pass before state lawmakers responded to questions about the cruelty of hangings and replaced the method of execution with lethal gas in 1955, according to DPSCS. The youngest man executed in Maryland, 17-year-old Leonard M. Shockley, whose case was adjudicated in Dorchester County, was executed by lethal gas in 1959.

    Debate about the death penalty led to a halt on state executions in 1962, and the demise of state death penalty statues across the country 10 years later when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such statutes were invalid.

    By the time Maryland executions resumed in 1994 -- a year after former death row inmate Kirk Bloodsworth of Cambridge was released from prison when DNA evidence exonerated him in the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl -- the state had switched to lethal injection executions. A moratorium was also enacted in May 2002 and lifted in January 2003.

    http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20100307/NEWS01/3070303/1002/rss

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    Trial set date in girl's kidnapping, death

    SALISBURY, MD. — A trial date has been set for a man accused of kidnapping and killing an 11-year-old girl, whose body was found on Christmas Day.

    Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty for 30-year-old Thomas Leggs Jr. He has been charged with murder, kidnapping and sex offenses in the death of Sarah Foxwell.

    A four-day trial in Wicomico County is set to begin May 24.

    Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/ap/trial-set-date-in-girls-kidnapping-death-88871147.html#ixzz0ixTT1fOX

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/ap/trial-set-date-in-girls-kidnapping-death-88871147.html

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    Trial of man accused of murdering 11 year-old girl to be held in neighboring county

    A man accused of murdering an 11 year-old girl in Wicomico County last December will stand trial in Cecil County after seeking a change of venue in his death penalty case.

    The capital murder trial of 30 year-old Salisbury resident Thomas James Leggs Jr. is expected to last three to four weeks, according to Angela Kuhn, an administrator for Cecil County Circuit Court.

    As of Tuesday, the dates of the jury trial had not been scheduled.
    "It's likely that it will start in December or January," said Kuhn, who received official notice Friday that the high-profile murder case had been moved to Cecil County.

    Leggs, a registered sex offender in two states, is accused of sexually assaulting and murdering Sarah H. Foxwell after abducting the girl from her Salisbury home Dec. 22.

    Sarah lived with her aunt, who was the girl's legal guardian and Leggs' former girlfriend.

    The girl's disappearance attracted national news coverage and hundreds of volunteers helped police search miles of woods and farmland. Her body was found near the Delaware state line on Christmas Day.

    Leggs is facing several charges, including first-degree murder, kidnapping a child under the age of 16 and first-degree sex offense, according to Wicomico County Circuit Court records.

    Kuhn said Wicomico County prosecutors would try the case. Because Leggs is facing the death penalty, lawyers from the state's Capital Defense Office in Baltimore will represent him.

    "Cecil County will provide the space (for the trial) and the jurors," Kuhn said, adding that local stenographers and court reporters would be used.

    The jury also will be comprised solely of Cecil County residents, Kuhn said, adding that Wicomico County would cover the cost of their service.

    A local judge won't be presiding over the trial, however. The case already has been assigned to visiting Judge D. William Simpson, who retired from the Wicomico County Circuit Court.

    http://www.newarkpostonline.com/articles/2010/06/03/news/doc4c06fec719a4f403204556.txt

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    Leggs' trial could cost Wicomico $118K
    Officials' worst-case scenario estimate includes lab work, travel, witness testimony


    SALISBURY -- Wicomico County, under a worst-case scenario, will spend $118,000 to prosecute the man charged in the death of Sarah Haley Foxwell, an 11-year-old from Salisbury, according to estimates by the sheriff and state's attorney.

    The trial expenses -- which include fees for DNA lab work, expert testimony, hotel stays and meals -- are higher because the case will be heard 100 miles away in Cecil County. The 30-year-old defendant, Thomas James Leggs Jr., faces the death penalty if convicted. That gave him the right to have his trial automatically moved outside the county.

    "His trial date cannot come soon enough for the citizens of Wicomico County," Sheriff Mike Lewis said.

    County State's Attorney Davis Ruark based the prosecution's expenses on a four-week trial, although he said he expects the trial to be a week shorter. The Public Defender Office in Baltimore, which is representing Leggs, has indicated that the trial could take up to eight weeks, Ruark said.

    "It's hard to predict; each case is different," Ruark said.

    Expenses incurred by the Public Defender's Office will be billed to the state, not the county.

    Police on Christmas morning found the girl's badly burned body in a wooded area near Delmar. Foxwell was last seen in her bedroom three days earlier, and more than 3,000 volunteers joined with police to look for her.

    Police and prosecutors have been tight-lipped about the evidence they have against Leggs, a registered sex offender in Maryland and Delaware. Ruark sent more than 200 items of potential evidence to the Maryland State Police Crime Lab in Pikesville. To secure a death penalty conviction, state law requires conclusive DNA evidence, video evidence or a videotaped confession.
    Trial expenses

    The court system will likely set the trial date within weeks, Lewis said. Ruark said the county's trial expenses could have been a lot worse. The trial could have been moved across the Bay Bridge or even farther, to Allegany, Garrett or Washington counties.

    The judge assigned to the case, D. William Simpson, a retired Wicomico Circuit Court administrative judge, also has a reputation for swift justice, according to Lewis.

    "Judge Simpson is a very rapid judge. He's no-nonsense and he will keep things moving very quickly," Lewis said.

    Trying a high-profile murder case has some expenses that can't be avoided. Lewis has budgeted $88,000 as a "worst-case scenario." He said the bulk of the expenses will come in the form of hotel rooms and per-diem payments for deputies, who will need payment for three meals a day. The sheriff plans to attend every day of the trial and said deputies and detectives will need to be present on certain days as well.

    Ruark has tried other death penalty cases but said it's impossible to compare costs because of advances in forensics. In 1998, he secured the conviction of Jody Lee Miles, who was found guilty of shooting a Salisbury theater manager in the head outside a rest stop near Mardela Springs. Miles is one of five inmates on Maryland's death row, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

    The state crime lab provides forensic work at no charge. Ruark said prosecutors sent evidence to the state crime lab for analysis and also to The Bode Technology Group in Lorton, Va. Outsourcing the work is expensive because prosecutors must pay for the service, travel expenses for the expert witness and an hourly rate for the testimony.

    "What I submitted is a worst-case scenario, if Wicomico has to pay for all the expenses. I believe the state will be very supportive," Ruark said.

    Maryland's Victim and Witness Protection and Relocation Program helps make sure victims and their families get to trials.

    "Family members have a right to be there," said Ara M. Crowe, the state's attorney's coordinator, who administers the program.
    Breakdown

    Leggs has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder, first- and second-degree sex offenses, kidnapping and burglary. Katy C. O'Donnell, chief attorney in the Office of Public Defender's Aggravated Homicide Division, could not be reached Friday.

    Since his arrest, Leggs has been jailed at the Wicomico County Detention Center. Director George Kaloroumakis said Leggs has his has own cell and is kept separate from the general population. It costs about $65 a day to hold him, no more than any other inmate, he said.

    Kaloroumakis said Leggs is not on suicide watch. But given his state, he does, however, have periodic interviews with mental health professionals.

    "There's been nothing remarkable in his time here. Knock on wood it stays that way," Kaloroumakis said.

    The trial in Cecil County presents no cost to the Department of Corrections, he said. Detention centers have "cooperative agreements" whereby they don't bill each other for holding another's inmates, Kaloroumakis said.

    When it comes time to move Leggs to Cecil County, the detention center won't publicize his transport, Kaloroumakis said.

    "Our job is to protect the public -- and to protect him from the public," Kaloroumakis said.

    http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20100606/NEWS01/6060301/1002/rss

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    Sarah Foxwell's grave damaged

    SALISBURY -- Vandals overnight Thursday damaged the grave of 11-year-old murder victim Sarah Haley Foxwell, a confidential resting place with a location unknown to most.

    Repairs came in less than a day after the vandalism, said Wicomico County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Gary Baker.

    Finding the culprit responsible for removing a granite vase attached to a matching stone at the undisclosed grave isn't expected to be as swift, and police are asking for the public's help.

    "We are looking for information; it's going to be tough," Baker said Friday. "There is not a lot of evidence. If anybody saw anything, we'd be interested."

    Authorities are not convinced that the vandal randomly picked the Foxwell grave over scores of others, some dating back a century, the chief deputy also said. There have been no recent reports of damage to other graves at the cemetery, he said.

    "The vase was attached to a flat part of the stone, and somebody kicked it off its stand," Baker said, adding that no other graves were reported damaged. "It appears to have been singled out."

    By midday Friday, Salisbury Monument Co. had sent a repair person to re-mount the vase, said Wanda Disharoon, whose family business donated the granite monument as a tribute to Foxwell.

    After a public memorial service in late December, burial was a subdued affair at an area cemetery that Disharoon was asked by authorities to not disclose, she said.

    Foxwell's badly burned body was discovered in a wooded area north of Salisbury this past Christmas Day, two days after her alleged kidnapping. A family acquaintance, 30-year-old Thomas James Leggs Jr. of Salisbury, has been charged with Foxwell's kidnapping and murder, charges for which the state has decided to seek the death penalty.

    Jennifer Foxwell contacted the Sheriff's Office on Friday about the vandalism. She had visited her child's grave Thursday and discovered the damage when she returned Friday morning, Baker said.

    Disharoon has seen cemetery vandalism in her years, but not quite like what happened at the Foxwell site.

    "There are other vases out, but none of them were bothered," Disharoon said.

    A church owns the cemetery, but Disharoon's company routinely checks on it as a courtesy to its many clients with loved ones there, she said.

    "Usually kids who vandalize, vandalize (several) graves. It is uncommon to vandalize one stone."

    http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100612/NEWS01/6120343

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    Leggs convicted in OC burglary

    A Worcester County judge sentenced Thomas J. Leggs Jr. to three years in prison on fourth-degree burglary charges, ending a court case that began months before authorities arrested him in connection with the murder of an 11-year-old Salisbury girl.

    Leggs stood accused of breaking into the apartment of a woman who turned him down for an overnight stay after a boozy cab ride home.

    Pamela Sima, 24, testified in Circuit Court that Sept. 11, 2009, she awoke at about 4 a.m. to find Leggs standing over her bed -- shirtless, undoing his belt and taking his pants down to his knees.

    "After it happened, it really affected my life," she told Judge Thomas C. Groton III prior to Leggs' sentencing. "For the rest of my time there, I slept with a knife by my side and a phone in my hand."

    Sima also testified she had rejected his romantic advances on a date one week earlier.

    A Worcester County Circuit Court jury deliberated for 20 minutes before reaching a guilty verdict Thursday. The jury found Leggs not guilty on a related charge of property destruction.

    Worcester County State's Attorney Joel Todd sought the maximum sentence of three years incarceration on the burglary charge, citing Leggs' criminal record and his being on the Maryland and Delaware sex offender registries.

    Sima said she was unaware of any of his criminal history while they were dating. Leggs was not accused of committing any sex offenses against her.

    They first met in late August 2009, Sima said, and had gone on at least one dinner date before meeting for drinks Sept. 2 at Pickles Pub. That night, Leggs walked her home.

    She later told police the two kissed, but he had come on too strong and was trying to take her clothes off "with me saying no plenty of times."

    According to Sima's testimony, a week later they ran into each other at the Cork Bar. Leggs apologized for his behavior. When she flagged a taxi home, Leggs joined her in the car, uninvited.

    Once at her house, he asked to stay over, repeatedly telling her that his roommates weren't letting him stay at his place, she testified. She said no, went inside and locked the door behind her.

    Hours later, when she found him at her beside, she yelled at him to get out. She heard the front door open and close. But when she got out of bed to make sure he was gone, she found him standing in her living room.

    "The fact that he would try to trick her into thinking he had left shows just how criminal his intentions were," Todd said. "The defendant is a dangerous individual. The best the criminal justice system can do is warehouse (him) for as long as we can for the good of the citizens of the state of Maryland."

    When Leggs did leave, Sima called 911. Responding police officers found two window screens removed outside the first-floor apartment, one of which was bent out of shape.

    A wooden window frame was damaged, police said, as if someone had pried away the screen. They also found scuff marks on the exterior beneath one of the windows. This evidence was the basis for a charge of malicious destruction of property, police said.

    A warrant was issued for his arrest Sept. 29. He was arrested Oct. 29, and posted $10,000 bond the same day.

    In the courtroom, Leggs wore a lime-green polo shirt, blue pants and black sneakers. He sported a bushy goatee and short-cropped hair. He often turned to comment into the ear of his attorney.

    Leggs wore no handcuffs or leg braces of any kind because Todd wanted the jury to decide the case on the facts presented, not on the biases that shackles inevitably bring, he said.

    Wicomico County sheriff's deputies escorted Leggs to the Snow Hill courtroom from Salisbury, where he is being held on charges of kidnapping, abusing and killing sixth-grader Sarah Haley Foxwell.

    Her family reported her missing Dec. 22. Leggs was arrested Dec. 23. After a search that involved thousands of volunteers, her burned remains were found Dec. 25 in a wooded area by a team of investigators.

    Leggs was indicted on murder and sex offense charges in February in Wicomico County, where the killing took place. In May, court officials announced his death penalty trial on those charges will be moved to Cecil County.

    Leggs did not testify during Thursday's trial. At sentencing, he declined to make any comments to the judge following the vigorous advice of his attorney, Arch McFadden.

    McFadden, in his closing statement, said prosecutors lacked evidence to show that anyone else had been in the house that night.

    "Where's the corroborating evidence?" he said. "I submit to you: zero. Were there fingerprints taken? Was there eyewitnesses?"

    McFadden -- who declined reporters' requests for comment -- was also critical of a lack of photographic evidence from the scene. He said he would file an immediate appeal.

    Ocean City Police Officer Nicole Thornes, who responded to Sima's 911 call, testified that photographs taken at the scene were submitted to the department's forensics unit. However, when prosecutors went to retrieve the photos to be used as evidence, "they were misplaced somehow," according to Todd.

    Ocean City Police spokesman Mike Levy said "there could be any number of reasons for that," and any cause would not be clear unless an internal investigation was conducted.

    http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20100806/NEWS01/8060304/1002/rss

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    Who will prosecute Thomas Leggs case?

    When a new Wicomico County state's attorney is sworn in on Jan. 3, a top priority will be preparing for the death penalty case against accused killer Thomas Leggs Jr.

    The Leggs trial is scheduled to begin April 18 in Cecil County.

    Leggs, a registered sex offender in Maryland and Delaware, is accused of kidnapping and murdering 11-year-old Sarah Haley Foxwell. Police found the Salisbury girl's badly burned body in a field near Delmar on Christmas Day 2009.

    Davis Ruark, the Wicomico state's attorney since 1987, had planned on prosecuting the case, but he fell in the Democratic primary to challenger W. Seth Mitchell.

    His defeat means either Mitchell or GOP candidate Matt Maciarello will take control of the State's Attorney's Office come January. The Leggs trial is expected to generate extraordinary media coverage and would be the first to test Maryland's more restrictive capital punishment requirements, which took effect Oct. 1, 2009.

    Maciarello says, if elected, he'd offer Ruark the chance to stay on as a lead prosecutor in the case. He said Ruark brings the most knowledge to the case, as Ruark has been intimately involved in it since Foxwell first went missing in December 2009.

    "I would be honored to have him lead the team that will assure closure for the Foxwell family and the community at large," Maciarello said in an interview Monday.

    The 36-year-old Maciarello is a partner in the Salisbury firm Hearne & Bailey PA. Maciarello said he and Ruark had discussed the possibility of Ruark -- if he lost the primary -- staying on to help with the Leggs case.

    "My campaign was a positive campaign by design, because I knew that it was in the best interest of the community to preserve the professional relationship that I have with State's Attorney Ruark and his staff," Maciarello said.

    Maciarello said the specific details of the arrangement haven't been worked out.

    Ruark said he's honored that Maciarello has presented him with the opportunity. Until his term is over in January, Ruark will keep working on the Leggs case, as two additional motion hearings are scheduled for October and November.

    "It is a gracious offer, and one I'm strongly considering," Ruark said.

    He added that it's up to whomever is elected to decide how to approach the Leggs case. Many in the prosecuting community have stated that the loss of former Deputy State's Attorney Sam Vincent is a major blow to the office. Vincent had announced his plans to run as a GOP challenger to Ruark but died June 25 from injuries suffered in a car crash on Route 50 near Sixty Food Road.

    Mitchell, for his part, when asked about his approach to preparing for the Leggs case, said that he does "not believe in trying cases in the paper." He said it is premature for him to discuss his approach to staffing.

    "I'm confident that when that case comes to trial, it will be tried in a competent manner with the appropriate counsel," Mitchell said.

    The 53-year-old Mitchell has 23 years of experience in criminal law, including three years as an assistant state's attorney, eight years in the Office of the Public Defender and 12 years as a private defense attorney.

    He said he's handled "close to a dozen" murder cases and numerous jury trials. Maciarello, in contrast, has not tried a murder case and has handled only several jury trials.

    Maciarello said that even without murder cases on his resume, he's handled "just about every type of case." He listed cases involving first-degree assault, burglary, robbery, forgery, uttering, serious juvenile cases, handgun violations, drug possession cases, theft schemes and different types of civil cases involving financial institutions.

    "The state's attorney is, first and foremost, a leader and manager of an office," Maciarello said. "The experience that I bring from being a partner in a law firm and my management training and experience that I have obtained over the years will serve Wicomico County well."

    Whoever is elected state's attorney, the office will be the first to test Maryland's new death penalty restrictions. Under the new law, prosecutors can seek the death penalty in cases in which there is DNA evidence, a videotaped confession or a video recording of the crime.

    In his experience, Ruark said preparing for death penalty cases is the most challenging and demanding type of litigation that an attorney can face.

    "It's very, very time consuming on a daily basis," he said.

    http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20100921/NEWS01/9210350/1002/rss

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