Suspect Pleads Not Guilty to UConn Slay

The man accused of in October pleaded not guilty to murder and waived his right to a probable cause hearing.

John Lomax III, 21, entered his plea Wednesday in Rockville Superior Court and waived the hearing that had been scheduled for Thursday, said his attorney, Deron Freeman.

"Probable cause hearings are pretty much rubber stamps," Freeman said. "Could we have shown they don't have a case for trial? Yes. But, that is not what probable cause is for, and we wouldn't have won a probable cause hearing."

Lomax, who also is charged with conspiracy to commit assault, is accused of stabbing UConn cornerback Jasper Howard during an Oct. 18 fight outside a school-sanctioned dance.

A 21-page arrest warrant affidavit includes an array of witness statements, some of them contradictory, about the deadly encounter between a group that included Lomax and a group of football players.

Several witnesses identified Lomax, who lives in Bloomfield and is not a UConn student, as the man they saw swinging his arm at Howard just before the cornerback said he had been stabbed.

Freeman said the state would have only needed the statement of one of those witnesses to prove probable cause.

Lomax is one of eight people facing charges in the case, but the only one charged with murder. No football player involved in the altercation has been arrested.

Freeman said he is not involved in any plea negotiations with the state and expects to go to trial.

"We're not going to plead to anything involving murder or manslaughter," he said. "We are still maintaining our innocence, 100 percent."

Lomax is due back in court Jan. 22.

Howard, a starting cornerback from Miami, died hours after helping his team to a homecoming game win over Louisville.