Incriminating statements allowed in murder trial

Incriminating statements made to police by El Soundani Elwahhabi, accused of killing a fellow inmate at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup last year, will be admissible during trial, Howard County Circuit Court Judge Timothy J. McCrone ruled during a pre-trial motions hearing Friday, June 8.

Police believe Elwahhabi, 50, used a piece of string to strangle 45-year-old Susan Sachs on Sept. 25, 2010.

Sachs was discovered face-down on her bed the next day by a nurse. Sachs and Elwahhabi lived in the same wing of the mental hospital. Both had psychiatric disorders and had been convicted of murder.

Central to prosecutors' case is a 31-minute recorded police interview with Elwahhabi, played during Friday's hearing, during which he admits to the crime in detail.

Defense attorney Debra Saltz said that a recording of the interview should not be admitted as evidence in Elwahhabi's upcoming October murder trail because it was partially inaudible. In the interview, there are at least three dozen instances when Elwahhabi's statements aren't discernable. Saltz also said that Elwahhabi was not of sound mind when speaking to police.

"What they intend to use is a statement that is absolutely unfair," she told McCrone.

McCrone disagreed.

"The defendant was basically very, very forthcoming, … speaking easily and freely," McCrone said after listening the recording. "He does not hesitate to tell the police what he did."

McCrone noted that Elwahhabi freely showed police an apology letter he wrote to Sachs after her slaying.

When arguing that the statement should not be suppressed, Senior Assistant Howard County State's Attorney Kim Oldham said that jurors will be able to use their discretion about how much weight to give the intermittently inaudible interview.

In the interview, conducted on Sept. 26, 2010, Elwahhabi told police he made a fatal pact with Sachs before her murder. He said Sachs told him she wanted to die because she had been raped and she thought the CIA wanted to killer her, according to the interview.

"You guys had a pact, she wanted you to take her life?" Maryland State Police Sgt. John Branham asked Elwahhabi during the interview.

"And then I was going to hang myself," Elwahhabi said, explaining that he "chickened out."

Elwahhabi said he used a piece of string from Sachs' room to strangle her. "I was trying, I felt kind of funny at first," he told police, according to the interview recording.

Saltz argued that Elwahhabi's manic depressive diagnosis, coupled with a prescription for Lithium, a drug used to treat manic depression, and his distraught demeanor, made him unfit to talk to police.

"He's in a mental institution for the criminally insane (but police) decide he looks stable to them." Saltz said.

But Oldham said Elwahhabi showed a thorough "sense of reasoning" when talking to police.

"Elwahhabi is very much aware," she said. "He is intelligent, he is wise. … He was interested in talking."

The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 3.