Innocent Plea From Ravens' Lewis
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis pleaded innocent to murder and assault charges Friday and a judge set jury selection in the case for May 15.
Lewis and two co-defendants are charged in connection with a Jan. 31 fight that broke out outside an Atlanta nightclub after a Super Bowl party. Jacinth Baker, 21, and Richard Lollar, 24, both of Decatur, died of stab wounds suffered in the fight.
Co-defendants Joseph Sweeting and Reginald Oakley waived their arraignments.
The arraignment took about five minutes and Lewis, who is free on bail, did not speak to reporters as he left the court. His attorney, Ed Garland, said he expected the trial to last about a week.
Garland has said that Lewis was not involved in the fight.
Meanwhile, a witness to the brawl that led to murder and assault charges against Lewis has given police clothing that Lewis was wearing when two men were stabbed to death outside an Atlanta nightclub, a newspaper reported Thursday.
Jessica Robertson had stored the clothing, which police had been seeking since the day of the killings in Atlanta, The Baltimore Sun reported, quoting unidentified sources.
She turned the clothing over to Fulton County District Attorney's investigators Monday after receiving a grant of immunity shielding her from charges, such as evidence tampering, that she might have faced for having kept or transported the clothes, The Sun reported.
Robertson's lawyer Akil Secret says the woman saw no bloodstains on any of the clothing. Lewis reportedly had worn a full-length, white fur coat and white cowboy hat to the nightclub.
Investigators are expected to test the clothing for evidence of blood, which could indicate whether the Baltimore linebacker came into contact with either victim during the fight, the newspaper reported.
"I think the evidence is going to be that the coat fell off onto the floor" of the limousine Lewis and his party were riding in, Secret said. "If there was as much blood in the limo (as authorities have said), then it would be odd if there was no blood on the coat.
"If there's blood on the coat, I don't think that implicates anybody. That is a fact that could have many interpretations," Secret added. "You have people scurrying into the vehicle after a melee. There's bound to be contact, person to person, person to car, clothes to clothing."
Secret said Lewis met Robertson, a Houston woman in her 20s, the Wednesday before the Jan. 30 Super Bowl, and she accompanied him to parties thrown by Magic Johnson and Atlanta music producer Jermaine Dupri.
One witness, Kwame King, is awaiting word on whether he, too, will be given immunity. King, who came to Atlanta with Lewis in a 37-foot-long limousine, was contacted by investigators, said his lawyer, Bruce H. Morris.
King, 26, grew up in Lewis' hometown of Lakeland, Fla., and is a student at Florida A&M. He was one of two people Lewis identified in a statement to police on thday of the killings as riding with him in the limo. Lewis also told them that King had his clothes.