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Lewis' family comes to his defense
Posted: Monday February 07, 2000 09:19 AM
ATLANTA (AP) -- As Ray Lewis remained in the Atlanta Detention Center Sunday, his friends and family continued their defense of the Baltimore Ravens' All-Pro linebacker who is accused of murder in two stabbing deaths. "No way, no way on this earth that Ray would ... use a knife to take somebody's life," Lewis' grandfather Gillis McKinney told a sports network Sunday. "We always told Ray that God gives life, and human beings shouldn't take life ... and Ray's that type of person." Lewis is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Jacinth "Shorty" Baker, 21, and Richard Lollar, 24, both residents of Decatur who moved to the Atlanta area two years ago from Akron, Ohio. The two men died after being stabbed in a post-Super Bowl brawl on the early morning of Jan. 31. Lewis is being held without bond, and his bond hearing has been moved up to Feb. 14. After making several statements proclaiming that Lewis was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, defense lawyers said this weekend they would have no further comment until they have been able to review the case more thoroughly. "We're working 18 hour days and then we're still thinking like we missed something," Jana L. Harris, one of Lewis' several defense lawyers, told The Associated Press. No other suspects have been named, but Atlanta police have confirmed they want to interview two men thought to have been with Lewis in a limousine seen speeding away from the scene of the crime Monday. A.J. Johnson and Kwame King are wanted for questioning, but are not necessarily suspects, Atlanta police spokesman John Quigley said. Johnson is a former University of Maryland player who had a tryout with the Miami Dolphins, and King grew up in Lewis' hometown of Lakeland, Fla. Few other details about the crime itself were forthcoming from Atlanta police, who were in Baltimore over the weekend interviewing possible witnesses. A marked police car was seen in the driveway of the limousine's driver Duane Fossett Saturday, although his wife Linda said he would have no comment. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported that Lewis was arrested based on Fossett's account of what happened. Baltimore police Sunday would not give details of the investigation there. Previous reports have said that two knives were found in the limo, and receipts for knives were found in Lewis' Atlanta hotel room. Harris previously said that the knives and receipts may belong to someone else. "This community feels like it's been hit in the gut," Lewis' high school football coach Earnest Joe told The [Baltimore] Sun. "I only hope we will have the opportunity to be together like that ... again. Lord, I pray that'll be so because Ray Lewis could never do what he's accused of," Lewis' high school principal Clint Wright told the newspaper. Current and former teammates also defended Lewis against current and previous accusations. The 24-year-old Lewis also faces charges that he hit a woman at a Baltimore-area bar on Nov. 30. But Howard Merker, deputy state's attorney for Baltimore County, said the case will not go to trial if the charge cannot be substantiated and has postponed a hearing on the case. "I was there and there ain't no way he touched that girl because the security -- they know Ray -- so they grabbed Ray when the fight broke out and pushed him off in the corner," Ravens cornerback Duane Starks, who played with Lewis at the University of Miami, told the network. In another interview with the network, the mother of a friend of Lewis who was murdered in Miami said she can't imagine Lewis taking another life. Former Miami teammate Marlin Barnes, who was beaten to death in 1996, was one of Lewis' closest friends and Lewis now wears a T-shirt bearing Barnes' image under his uniform for every game. "He saw the pain that is caused the family and friends and it's just hard to believe he would do that to another family," Barnes' mother Charlie May Postell said.
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