Youth accused in Cheltenham slaying

Posted: 7:28 pm Wed, July 28, 2010
By Associated Press

UPPER MARLBORO — A 14-year-old boy has been charged as a juvenile in the bludgeoning death of a Maryland juvenile detention center employee.

The unidentified youth was in court Wednesday for proceedings that are similar to an arraignment and indictment in adult court.

He’s accused of murder and attempted rape in the February slaying of 65-year-old Hannah Wheeling, and prosecutors are seeking to have him tried as an adult. When Wheeling was killed, the youth was in the custody of the state’s juvenile services division because of his involvement in a series of breaking and entering incidents, his defense attorney said Wednesday. The teen has remained in custody since the slaying.

He was 13 years and seven months old when Wheeling’s partially clothed body was found outside a building at the Cheltenham Youth Facility in Prince George’s County. Police said she died of multiple blunt-force injuries.

The boy’s attorney, public defender Allen Wolf, said he had been misled by prosecutors about the nature of Wednesday’s hearing. Wolf said he believed the hearing would address efforts to place the boy within various juvenile programs.

“We didn’t know this was going to happen,” Wolf said.

Prosecutors said case information was available on the court docket.

Lawmakers have criticized the Department of Juvenile Services for its handling of the case.

In March, two state lawmakers — a Democratic senator and House Republican Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell —asked Secretary of Juvenile Services Donald DeVore to appear at a hearing to explain how the department is being run.

DeVore skipped the hearing, saying it conflicted with other scheduled committee hearings and that the Democratic leaders of the state House and Senate had advised him the meeting was not called by an official legislative body.

Last week, O’Donnell pressed the matter again, saying he wanted information about why criminal charges had not been filed more than five months after the killing.

DeVore responded to O’Donnell’s complaint saying in a letter that the department has cooperated with authorities and has taken a variety of security steps since Wheeling’s death.

Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey said he appreciates the interest in the matter from members of the state legislature, but he has not received any political pressure on the case.

“Politics is irrelevant to us,” Ivey said.

O’Donnell says much larger questions still remain about the operations of the Department of Juvenile Services.

“This juvenile was supposed to be under 24-hour care and supervision of this department,” O’Donnell said. “I want to know what happened in the taxpayer-funded Department of Juvenile Services to allow this murder to occur.”