The Court of Special Appeals overturned yesterday the conviction of Akil J. Roebuck, a 22-year-old man serving a life term for the January 2000 murder of a 14-year-old boy in Harford County.
Roebuck's lawyer had appealed the conviction on the grounds that his client should have been allowed to introduce into evidence a statement by his cousin that cleared him of killing Jacoby R. Fagan, a Pimlico Middle School pupil.
Roebuck, of Manassas, Va., was convicted of murder last year after a trial judge barred the statement that Rolston E. James Jr. made to police, in which he admitted that he alone had stabbed and shot the boy in the woods off Route 152.
James was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years for using a handgun in the commission of a felony.
The appeals court ruled yesterday that the Harford County Circuit Court should have admitted James' statement as evidence in Roebuck's trial.
Harford County State's Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly said his office would prosecute Roebuck again if the ruling is not overturned.
It will be up to the Maryland attorney general's office, which handled the appeal, to decide whether to take it to the state's highest court.
Roebuck's lawyer, Leslie A. Stein, praised the ruling, saying his client's defense hinged on the cousin's statement.
"The appeals court pointed out that an accused has the right to put on a vigorous defense and should not be hampered from doing so by putting insurmountable burdens on him to get an out-of-court statement admitted," Stein said.
According to prosecutors, Fagan was riding in a car with James, Roebuck and another man, John Miller Jr., just before he was killed. Miller agreed to testify against Roebuck and James, and charges against him were subsequently dropped. James told police that he was "high and drunk" when he put a knife to the boy's throat and ordered Miller, who was driving, to stop the car.
James then led Fagan into the woods, where he killed him, authorities said.
Stein argued during the trial that, although Roebuck handed a gun to James, he did not know that his cousin was going to kill Fagan.