Pretrial procedures in the case of alleged ‘Craigslist killer’ and former Boston University School of Medicine student Philip Markoff are in still in progress, the prosecution said.
‘The investigation remains ongoing with the testing and discovery process continuing,’ Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office Jake Wark spokesman said. ‘Our obligation is to provide defense council with discovery and evidence and we have every intention of following through that obligation.’
Markoff will not appear at the next pretrial hearing on Sept. 24 because his attorney waived his right to be present, Wark said.
Markoff was arrested on April 20 on suspicion of the murder of 25-year-old New York woman Julissa Brisman, a masseuse who advertised erotic services on Craigslist. Her body was found with multiple gunshot wounds on April 14 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place Hotel.
Suffolk County Grand Jury indicted Markoff in June on charges of the first-degree murder of Brisman and armed robbery and kidnapping of 29-year-old prostitute Trisha Leffler on April 10. Markoff is also being accused of unlawful possession of weapons and attempted robbery on April 16 of a prostitute in a Warwick, R.I. hotel.
He allegedly met all three women through Craigslist.
At his initial arraignment, Markoff pled not guilty to all charges.
Witness testimony and Internet and telephone records were presented to the grand jury against Markoff. According to the district attorney’s office, Markoff used a disposable phone to arrange meetings with the victims. The phones were found at his apartment, along with a 9mm automatic handgun which matched the gun that killed Brisman.
Police also found Markoff’s fingerprints on the gun’s purchasing documents, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Edmond Zabin told The Daily Free Press in June.
‘We’re very satisfied at this point that the evidence that we’ve developed . . . supports these charges,’ Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley said. But, he said, the case remains ‘open and active, and we’ll aggressively pursue any and all additional evidence.’
Markoff’s attorney John Salsberg criticized the investigation and accused the district attorney’s office in Suffolk County Superior Court of leaking information to the media, which he said potentially tainted the grand jury process. But his defense motion, which requested examination of the grand jury process, was rejected by a Suffolk Superior Court judge.
Markoff’s friends and family expressed shock at the charges. A Facebook group titled ‘Phil Markoff is innocent until proven guilty’ was created shortly after his arrest. The group, now with over 400 members, criticized media coverage with possible influence over the legal system.
‘This group was created to cause the media to reconsider their policies of turning suspects into criminals without the true due process of the law,’ group administrators wrote.
Other students said they were not surprised by the charges.
‘The charges aren’t that shocking after what he has done,’ Hyesung Park, a College of Communication senior, said. ‘If he has the guts to pull the trigger, he would have the guts to deny what he has done and plead not guilty even if all the evidence is pointing at him. People like him have no conscience, and they don’t feel sorry.’
Some students also said they trusted the fairness of the legal system and grand jury process and doubted the claims of the defense.
‘In cases like this, if the evidence has got this far, it’s kind of ridiculous for the attorney to say there’s some kind of foul play going on in the legal system,’ College of Arts and Sciences senior Paul Senker said.
Markoff’s next pretrial hearings are set to take place in December and May 2010. His trial is scheduled to begin in June 2010.
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