Wesley Moore left a "calling card" near the Pikesville jewelry store where Baltimore County police Sgt. Bruce A. Prothero was killed in a robbery last year, a county Circuit Court jury was told yesterday.
Prothero, a 35-year-old father of five, was shot three times Feb. 7, 2000, as he chased four men after a robbery at J. Brown Jewelers, where he was working a second job as a security guard.
Assistant State's Attorney S. Ann Brobst told jurors in opening statements yesterday that Moore left a key piece of evidence outside the store - a necklace with DNA from his skin cells on it.
"When he fled from the scene he left his calling card and it said I've been here, where Sergeant Prothero was murdered," Brobst said.
Watches worth more than $400,000 were taken in the robbery.
Brobst said Moore and his brother, Richard Antonio Moore, were arrested about two weeks after the slaying at a relative's house in Philadelphia, ending a nationwide manhunt.
But Paul DeWolfe Jr., Moore's lawyer, told jurors in his opening statement yesterday that his client was not involved in the robbery and made a "terrible mistake" by going to Philadelphia with his brother. The necklace fell out of the leather jacket that Richard Moore was wearing the day of the robbery, he said.
Wesley Moore, 25, of Baltimore is the third of four defendants to be tried on charges of first-degree murder in the slaying.
Richard Moore, 30, of Baltimore is scheduled to be tried in Harford County Circuit Court on April 17.
Donald Antonio White Jr., 19, and Antonio Marcel Talley, 23, both of Baltimore, were each sentenced to life without parole in the fall after they were convicted by separate juries of first-degree felony murder, armed robbery, assault and handgun charges.