Elwahhabi murder trial postponed to 2012

The murder trial of El Soundani Elwahhabi, which had been scheduled to begin this week, has been postponed to Feb. 27, 2012, according to T. Wayne Kirwan, spokesman for the Howard County State's Attorney's Office.

The trial was supposed to start Monday, Oct. 3, but Elwahhabi was taken that morning to Howard County General Hospital. Proceedings were rescheduled for Oct. 4, but Elwahhabi did not show up, leading to the postponement, Kirwan said.

He was released from the hospital and taken back to jail at about 12:30 p.m. Oct 4, according to his attorney, Debra A. Saltz.

The 51-year-old had been at the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup, awaiting trial on one count of first-degree murder.

Elwahhabi was to be transported to Howard County Circuit Court on Oct. 3, but an officer found him on the floor at about 7:30 a.m. He was unresponsive, and there were no apparent signs of why he was in that condition, said Jack Kavanagh, the detention center's director.

Elwahhabi is accused of using a piece of string to strangle Susan Sachs, a 45-year-old fellow inmate at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, in Jessup, on Sept. 25, 2010. Both lived in the same wing of the mental hospital, had psychiatric disorders and had been convicted of murder.