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Judge refuses plea by accused killer to toss statements
OAKLAND — Statements by a murder suspect to police when questioned about the killing of a young couple at a hobo camp are admissible at trial, a judge ruled on Tuesday.
A lawyer for Jeffrey C. Minnick had argued that Minnick was in custody but had not yet been read his Miranda rights when investigators began questioning him about the slayings. Garrett County Circuit Court Judge James Sherbin denied the motion to throw out the statements.
Minnick, 46, of Accident, faces a Feb. 7 trial on two counts of first-degree murder for the May 31 slayings of Timothy Lax, 24, and Jessica Baker, 18, at the camp in the western Maryland town of Oakland. Their bodies were found June 1 near some railroad tracks in a swampy area that police say is frequented by vagrants. Investigators say Minnick’s bloody hunting knife was found nearby.
Police say Minnick told them that a fourth person at the campsite killed the couple. Police say they eliminated that person as a suspect.
Minnick’s lawyer, Joseph M. Owens said during a court recess Tuesday that Minnick and the slain couple of Oakland were friends.
State’s Attorney Lisa Thayer Welch declined to offer a motive for the slayings.
Court records state that Minnick told someone in the week before he was charged that if Lax didn’t get rid of Baker, he would do them both in. Neither Welch nor Minnick would say who that witness was, but the statement wasn’t part of Tuesday’s proceeding.
Owens was dismissive about the statement when asked about it outside of court.
“I take that comment like, ‘If my wife doesn’t shut up, I’m going to knock her head off,'” he said. “I take that as a figure of speech and I think everybody else does, too.”
