Suspect in Potomac senior home killing declared competent to stand trial

After a judge determined Thursday that the suspect in the fatal Valentine’s Day shooting in a Potomac senior home is competent to stand trial, his attorney strongly proclaimed his innocence.

“The state has a high hill to climb to prove he did it beyond a reasonable doubt,” Mike Stark said of his client, Maurquise Emillo James. “Not guilty means not guilty.”

Stark told reporters both cases involving James — one for first-degree murder in Montgomery County and the other for attempted murder in Baltimore — will be “hard-fought.”

And he cast doubt on video recorded at Cogir of Potomac senior living, where James worked as a med tech. Police said the video, which shows a suspect walking away from the camera in a wig, helped identify James as the alleged killer.

“We have very good reason to believe that is not my client,” Stark said.

The competency declaration, signed off by Montgomery County District Court Judge Michael O. Glynn III, followed a doctor’s exam that found James mentally capable of standing trial.

Prosecutors have not said what they believe motivated James in the fatal shooting of Robert Fuller Jr.

Glynn on Feb. 26 denied him bond in the Potomac case and the one in Baltimore, in which he is accused of firing at a state trooper during a predawn traffic stop 10 days after Fuller’s death.

Stark, who represents James in the Montgomery County and Baltimore cases, has said his client will plead not guilty in both cases, though pleas were not scheduled for Thursday’s hearing.

Prosecutors have said Fuller, a philanthropist and retired lawyer, died from a gunshot to the head and that James had planned the crime for a month.

Requests for competency hearings are “done routinely,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said.

Two crimes, one suspect

Investigators said they collected a 9 mm casing from Fuller’s apartment, where his body was discovered. They accuse James of disabling alarms and propping open doors to evade detection.

James visited Fuller’s apartment Feb. 13 and gave medication to him and a resident who shared the apartment but slept in a separate bedroom.

That resident told police they did not hear a gunshot and found it strange that James returned to the apartment that night to ask if their prescribed medication, Oxycodone, had kicked in.

Detectives said tipsters helped identify James after Montgomery County Police released a video of a suspect.

On Feb. 24, a state trooper pulled over an Infiniti registered to James for speeding and driving without lights or tags in Northeast Baltimore.

When the trooper approached the vehicle, the driver opened his door and fired two rounds, police say. The bullets missed but gave the trooper powder burns, and the driver fled.

Shell casings collected from the scene matched the one collected from the Potomac facility, Montgomery County Police said.

James twice shot at the trooper’s face, Assistant State’s Attorney Jodie Mount said in court last week.

“It is a miracle that trooper is alive.”