An Anne Arundel County District Court judge set bail at $1 million Friday for a Severna Park woman charged with murder, after authorities contended that she drove the getaway car for her boyfriend, a jockey who is accused of fatally stabbing a woman in a Pasadena parking lot.
Danielle Marie Swain, 22, of the 500 block of East Drive was charged Thursday with first-degree murder, robbery and related charges in the homicide last month of Debra Lynn Gill, 52. Swain was being held in the county jail before Friday's hearing in Annapolis before Judge Shaem C. Spencer.
"She was present at the scene of the murder and was the driver of the getaway vehicle," said Anne Arundel County Assistant State's Attorney Jay Creech, who asked Spencer to set $1 million bail.
Charging documents allege that Gill's blood was found in Swain's silver Chevrolet Malibu. Swain's 22-year-old boyfriend, Francis Eugene Adams, who lived with Swain and her mother, was charged last month with murder, armed robbery and related counts in the case.
Creech told Spencer that "without her assistance, Mr. Adams could not have escaped." Adams was arrested May 30, the day after Gill was stabbed to death and a companion was wounded, and Creech said efforts had been made to clean Swain's car.
Prosecutors will evaluate the case against Adams, whose bail was set at $1 million earlier this month, as a possible death penalty case. The state's attorney's office will review evidence and speak with the defense and victim's family before making a decision, said Kristin Fleckenstein, a spokeswoman for the office.
Gill's boyfriend, Clayton Baublitz, 25, told police that a man stabbed him in the parking lot in the 8000 block of Corkberry Lane, robbed him of a cell phone, money and identification, then attacked Gill, who was in her car, the charging documents say. Baublitz identified Adams as the attacker, picking him from a photo lineup, according to police.
The altercation likely stemmed from an argument at a Glen Burnie bar, charging documents say. Baublitz was outside the bar when a man, believed to be Adams, got out of a car and asked him for a cigarette before walking across the street. Baublitz briefly spoke with a woman who was driving the car, asking her age, the documents say. Gill then came out of the bar, and there was an argument involving Gill, Baublitz and the woman. Gill and her boyfriend went back into the bar, police wrote.
Later, when they came out and got into Gill's car, police said they were apparently followed by the other car. Surveillance videos captured the victim's vehicle and a silver car that police wrote appeared to be the same one seen leaving the homicide scene, a Marley Run Apartments parking lot.
Investigators questioned Swain. "She denied involvement in the murder; however, she admitted to being at the bar and operating ... the vehicle during the time frame of the murder," charging documents say.