Leeander Blake sat in court Thursday much as he has in the past five years, listening to attorneys argue over whether his statements to Annapolis police about the carjacking death of Straugham Lee Griffin were the utterings of a scared 17-year-old or a confession meant to shift the blame.

Griffin, 51, a partner in a Columbia-based media firm was killed in September 2002 as he unloaded groceries from his Jeep Grand Cherokee in front of his Annapolis home. Blake, now 22, and Terrence Tolbert, 24, were charged a month later. The gun has never been recovered and it’s unclear who pulled the trigger, though Blake maintains it was not him, according to police. Tolbert is serving a life sentence for the crime.

In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hanlon said police acted “by the book” throughout Blake’s arrest and did nothing to provoke his statement, in which Blake told police he pointed Griffin out to Tolbert as a target. Hanlon said Blake decided to talk after police told him Tolbert had blamed him for Griffin’s death.

Blake’s legal team has maintained throughout that Annapolis police used scare tactics to force his statement, after he had requested an attorney.

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“When the law says you can’t talk to this person without the benefit of counsel — that’s it,” defense attorney Kenneth Ravenell said in his closing argument.

Ravenell said prosecutors were “reaching” in saying they knew why Blake waived his right to attorney.

“Well, how do they know? They don’t want you to focus on the fact that the death notice was there,” Ravenell said, referring to documents police gave Blake that listed “DEATH” as the penalty for his charges, even though, as a minor, he was ineligible.

Prosecutors played up the testimonies of several witnesses who saw two teenagers walking toward them minutes before Griffin was killed. Though they could not pick out Blake’s face, witnesses said, they felt threatened by the men, and one witness remembered seeing a man with one arm, like Tolbert.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations today.

THE BACKGROUND

The trial began last Monday, after nearly five years of legal proceedings on the admissibility of Blake’s confession to police in state court. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. The court heard the oral arguments but took no action, which upheld the state’s court finding that the confession was inadmissible. Federal prosecutors took up the case last year, after charges against Blake were dropped in state courts.

jpalazzolo@baltimoreexaminer.com

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