MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (7News) — A Montgomery County judge found the suspect in the murder of an 87-year-old Potomac man competent to stand trial on Thursday.
After the hearing, the attorney for Marquise James, 22, raised questions about whether his client is really the person who may have been wearing a wig in surveillance video released by county police, adding that the defendant plans to plead not guilty.
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District Court Judge Michael O. Glynn III found James competent to stand trial after the man underwent a psychiatric evaluation. James’ defense attorney did not object to that finding.
James is accused of killing Robert Fuller, a millionaire and philanthropist, who was shot and killed in his bed on Valentine’s Day last month in the Cogir senior living community in Potomac.
James was an employee at Cogir who helped give residents their medicine.
Prior to his arrest, Montgomery County Police released video of a person in a mask and wig. A witness came forward and identified that person as James.
Suspect in killing of Robert Fuller Jr., a Maine lawyer and philanthropist, who was shot to death at a senior living facility in Maryland. (Montgomery County police)
“Doesn’t everyone think that’s a pretty poor picture?” defense attorney Michael Stark, who was hired by James’s family, said after the court hearing Thursday. “Who is it? We don’t know. We have very good reason to believe that is not my client. This will be a hard-fought case.”
Stark added that James plans to plead not guilty in the Montgomery County case, as well as a separate case in Baltimore City. Ten days after Fuller was killed, investigators said James shot at a state trooper in Baltimore. He faces a host of charges related to that incident, including attempted first-degree murder.
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7News asked Stark if James’s plan to plead not guilty in both cases indicates he did not commit either crime.
“I’m saying the state has a high hill to climb to prove he did it beyond a reasonable doubt, and we have reason to believe in both cases, it was not him,” Stark said.
The next hearing in Montgomery County District Court is a preliminary hearing scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on March 27.
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