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Trying circumstances Lewis will be tried along with two co-defendants
Posted: Friday May 05, 2000 05:29 PM
ATLANTA (AP) -- A judge ruled Friday that Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis will be tried with his two co-defendants, paving the way for their murder trial to start in less than two weeks. Superior Court Judge Alice D. Bonner denied the defense motion for a separate trial, saying simply that the court was "not persuaded that the issues raised by defendants justify severance" of the trial, scheduled to begin May 15. Lewis' lawyers had requested separate trials to assure a "fair determination of each defendant's guilt or innocence." Lewis, Joseph Sweeting and Reginald Oakley are charged with murder in the stabbing deaths of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar, both of Decatur. The two men were killed after a fight at a post-Super Bowl party in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood. Ed Garland, one of Lewis' attorneys, did not immediately return a message left at his office. Fulton County prosecutors said they could not comment on the ruling because of a gag order. Garland has said that Lewis did not stab the two men and was not involved in the fight that preceded their deaths. Witnesses accounts of the fight have differed, although several have said they saw Lewis throwing punches during the scuffle outside an Atlanta nightclub. Lewis, 24; Sweeting, 34, of Miami; and Oakley, 31, of Baltimore, face up to life in prison if convicted. The three men and several others sped away from the scene of the stabbings in a stretch limousine rented by Lewis for Super Bowl weekend. Police said Lewis, the NFL's leading tackler last season, lied to investigators about his relationship to Sweeting and Oakley. Garland had requested a speedy trial for Lewis, who remains on the Ravens' roster. All three men are out on bail, and Lewis has been at home in Baltimore.
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