‘Breakdown’ led to Valentine’s Day killing at Potomac senior home, attorney says

Suzanne Caron is seeking answers after her mother’s boyfriend was fatally shot on Valentine’s Day at an upscale senior home in Potomac.

“We have no idea how this could have happened. We entrusted our family to the care of this facility and its employees,” she said on Friday, while speaking from a law office in Silver Spring flanked by attorneys representing her family. “We suffered an immeasurable loss, and the trauma is ongoing. We need to know why and how.”

Caron’s mother, Linda Buttrick, filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Cogir of Potomac, the senior living facility, and Maurquise Emillo James, who is charged with first-degree murder of Buttrick’s boyfriend, 87-year-old Robert Fuller Jr.

Buttrick claimed in the lawsuit that Cogir failed to act on multiple complaints made by a nurse against James shortly before the killing of Fuller. Cogir also didn’t reassign James after Buttrick accused him of killing her partner to the police.

James, 22, worked at Cogir as a medication technician.

Buttrick’s attorney Michael J. Belsky said on Friday that he hopes the lawsuit spurs Cogir employees to come forward and share what they know about Fuller’s death, the man accused of killing him, and decisions made by Cogir’s management in the aftermath of the killing.

“There is substantial evidence as to what happened,” Belsky said. “What we don’t understand ... and what we don’t know is how it was able to institutionally happen.”

He said Cogir “turned a blind eye” to complaints made by Cogir employees against James.

“The shooting happened based on a breakdown in culture and management on the part of Cogir,” Belsky said.

He called Fuller a “pillar of the community and an extraordinary man.”

James’s attorney Michael Stark declined to comment for this story, but he told The Banner on Thursday he was “concerned and focused on Maurquise James and his innocence.”

”This is America, and the courthouse doors are open for anyone to file frivolous claims," he wrote in a text. “Mr. James and his family have bigger fish to fry.”

Caron said her mother moved from Maine to Maryland in 2023 to live with Fuller at Cogir. She said she had known Fuller since she was a little girl.

“We are fighting for answers,” she said. “We need to know what happened to him and to find reasons as to what happened with my mom.”

A representative of Cogir did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

On Thursday, a Cogir spokesperson said the company is working closely with authorities on the investigation, and that in order to preserve its integrity and out of respect for those involved it could not share details.

According to the lawsuit, Buttrick spoke to investigators only hours after she woke up to the grisly crime scene on the morning of Valentine’s Day in an apartment she shared with Fuller. Fuller, who paid $20,000 per month to live at Cogir, was a longtime lawyer in Maine and a philanthropist.

Buttrick alleged in her complaint that she experienced “severe psychological torment” because of how management at Cogir handled the killing.

She told investigators that she suspected James had killed Fuller “based on his suspicious behavior and the unusual return visit the night before,” according to the suit. “She had never been comfortable with him,” the filing said. “She had noticed at times that something did not seem right.”

On Feb. 13, the night before the killing, James administered medication to the couple and returned 20 minutes later to ask Buttrick if the oxycodone he had given her had “kicked in,” the suit said.

The following morning, Buttrick, who slept in a separate bedroom, was awakened by the screams of a staff member who found Fuller’s body.

Buttrick hurried to Fuller’s room and “saw everything — the gunshot wound, the blood soaking his pillows and sheets,” according to the suit.

James wore a wig and mask to hide his identity when he entered the couple’s apartment around 5 a.m. on Valentine’s Day, according to Montgomery County Police.

James continued to be assigned to be Buttrick’s medication technician after the killing, according to the suit, despite Buttrick’s indicating to police that she believed James was the killer.

Her “body shook, her heart raced, and she felt physically ill each time she found herself alone in her apartment with the man she had identified to police as her partner’s suspected killer,” according to the suit.

The suit alleges other actions by James and Cogir prior to Fuller’s killing that warranted concern.

A Cogir nurse had emailed supervisors 11 days before the killing, alleging that James had sexually harassed a coworker, mishandled medications and arrived at work intoxicated, the suit claims.

It also alleges that the nurse’s complaints reached one of James’ top supporters at Cogir — his mother, Shenise James-Dubose.

James-Dubose worked as Cogir’s regional health and wellness director when Fuller was killed, the suit alleges.

Instead of investigating the accusations against James, Cogir officials fired the nurse who sent the email, according to the suit, which does not name the nurse.

The lawsuit demands $1,125,000 for Buttrick, who was friends with Fuller for decades before becoming his romantic partner after their spouses died.

James is also charged with first- and second-degree attempted murder for allegedly shooting at a state trooper during a predawn traffic stop on Feb. 24.

Later that day, he was arrested in downtown Rockville ahead of a court appearance related to a traffic violation. Shell casings collected from the scene matched the ones collected from the Potomac senior home, police said.