Baltimore cop was going to testify about planted drugs

Before he was murdered, Baltimore cop Sean Suiter was going to testify about how colleagues used him as a pawn to frame an enemy drug dealer they allegedly planted heroin on in 2010, it has been revealed.

The revelation has prompted Baltimore PD, which is now completely unable to ignore the mounting conflicts of interest involved in the case, over to the FBI. 

Suiter, 43, was shot dead with his own gun while canvassing a neighborhood in Harlem Park on November 16.

The father-of-three was wearing a suit and had been going door-to-door to speak to residents about a triple murder the previous year. 

His partner has since described how he was shot in an alleyway after being lured into it by a man who was behaving suspiciously. No other description of his killer has been given and he has not been found.

Suiter was due to testify the next day at the trial of seven former Baltimore PD colleagues who are accused of drug dealing, stealing money and widespread racketeering while running the Gun Trace Task Force, a disbanded unit of the department.

He was going to give evidence about a 2010 search he performed on the car of convicted drug dealer Umar Burley after a high speed car chase which Wayne Jenkins, one of the defendants, allegedly asked him to carry out.

Burley, a prominent crime figure who prosecutors had been desperately trying to pin down, was jailed for 15 years as a result of what Suiter found in his car – 28 grams of heroin, neatly stuffed into 32 individual packets.

Prosecutors now say Jenkins, determined to put Burley away, planted the drugs in his vehicle after he crashed it at the end of the chase to ensure a heavy sentence. 

He then asked Suiter, who was ‘clueless to his plot’, to look inside the vehicle, knowing he would find the heroin and that it would be enough to finally see Burley go away for a substantial amount of time. 

Though he had been convicted of drug offenses in the past, on the night in question, prosecutors say Burley was innocent. He nonetheless spent seven years in jail, half of a 15-year sentence, for it. 

Now, not only are they asking that Jenkins be convicted of additional charges, but they want his conviction to be vacated – a humiliating request for an office which spent years tirelessly trying to put him behind bars.

Disgraced Baltimore PD cop Wayne Jenkins (left) allegedly planted the drugs inside the car of convicted drug dealer Umar Burley (right) in 2010 after Burley crashed at the end of a high speed chase. The discovery put Burley – who prosecutors had been trying desperately to nail – behind bars for 15 years and was hailed as a law enforcement triumph

Some of the 28 grams of heroin that were found inside Burley’s car by Suiter are shown above in a news report from his 2010 arrest 

On Friday, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis revealed that the crime is what Suiter planned to tell the federal grand jury about when he was killed as he asked the FBI to take over the murder probe. 

Jenkins now faces racketeering charges for his role in the alleged corruption scheme and an additional charge of the Destruction, Alteration, or Falsification of Records for the 2010 incident. If convicted, he could face an extra 20 years behind bars on top of any conviction yielded from the corruption trial.

For local investigators, it further complicates the ongoing murder investigation into Suiter’s death. 

In a letter to the FBI on Friday, Baltimore Commissioner Kevin Davis said: ‘Detective suiter was scheduled to appear before a federal grand jury the day after he was killed pursuant to his knowledge of facts regarding a 2010 crime indicted just yesterday as part of the broken boundaries corruption investigation. 

‘The circumstances surrounding Detective Suiter’s killing are significantly complicated by the fact that he was to appear before a federal grand jury the following day. 

‘I am growing increasingly uncomfortable that my homicide detectives do not know all of the facts known to the FBI or to the US Attorney’s Office that could, if revealed to us, assist in furthering this murder investigation.

‘I respectfully request the FBI to investigate the murder of Detective Sean Suiter,’ he said in a letter to the bureau on Friday. 

On Friday, after initially claiming custody of the murder investigation into Suiter’s death, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis relinquished it to the FBI in light of the mounting conflicts of interest 

Davis wrote to the FBI on Friday to ask them to take over the investigation in to Suiter’s murder

Davis went on to tell CBS Baltimore that he stands behind the US Attorney’s Office and believes Jenkins is guilty. ‘This guy was able to operate with impunity on this police department for far too long,’ he said. 

Jenkins remains behind bars along with his co-defendants in the corruption trial which is scheduled for January 2018.   Daniel Hersl, Evodio Hendrix, Jemell Rayam, Marcus Taylor, Maurice Ward, and Momodu Gando are also facing charges. 

Police have still not honed in on a description of Suiter’s killer.

On November 16, he was in the Harlem Park neighborhood with his partner Det. David Bomenka. The pair were going door-to-door to speak to neighbors about a triple homicide which happened the previous year. 

Det. Bomenka says they both noticed a man behaving suspiciously in the area but ignored him

When they saw him for a second time,  he said Suiter was lured by him into an alleyway. 

Bomenka claims he then heard gunshots and took cover, a claim which is verified by private surveillance cameras, according to The Baltimore Sun. 

After the shots had finished, he found his partner in the alleyway with a single gunshot wound to his head. 

His gun was next to him and had been fired three times in total, meaning the suspect was also likely shot. 

Suiter died in hospital the next day. The Baltimore PD at first assigned its own murder detectives to handle the case but has now relinquished it to federal investigators. 

Co-defendants: Daniel Hersl (L) and Evodio Hendrix (R)

Jemell Ryan  (L) and Marcus Taylor (R)

Maurice Ward (L) and Momodu Gando (R) Their racketeering trial begins in January 2018 

Only afterward his death did the commissioner learn of Suiter’s intentions to testify before the grand jury at the federal corruption trial. 

As they announced the additional charges against Jenkins on Friday over the 2010 incident, federal prosecutors did not reveal why they believe Jenkins was so desperate to put Burley away. 

There are myriad potential explanations which could be woven in to theory surrounding their alleged racketeering including the intention to steal recovered drugs from crime scenes to sell themselves. 

He and another, unnamed officer, were in an unmarked police car on April 28 and Suiter was driving alone in a separate, unmarked car when they began chasing Burley. 

As they chased him, Burley smashed into another vehicle on the road and came to a stop. The man in the other car was Elbert Davis,  the elderly father of another one of their colleagues who died as a result of the collision. 

Once they had arrested Burley and the other man in the car, prosecutors say Jenkins told his partner –  who has not been named and is likely another witness in the trial – to call another Sergeant who was not at the scene because he was going to put ‘the stuff’ in his car. 

On November 16, Suiter was shot in the head with his own gun in this alleyway in a run-down area of Baltimore where he was canvassing residents about a year-old triple murder. It happened the day before he was due to testify against Jenkins and his six co-defendants 

The turnout for Det. Suiter’s funeral on November 29 was overwhelming. His burial was delayed due to organ donation 

That officer claims he called for Suiter and watched as he searched the car after Jenkins planted the drugs.

After their arrest, Jenkins allegedly listened in to the two defendants’ phone calls during which they complained about the drugs being planted. 

He then told his partner that neither of them could testify in the case, it is claimed. 

It is not clear how or when prosecutors believe Suiter became aware that the drugs were planted.  There is no indication that he was involved in it or that he was ever a part of the corruption scheme. 

The US Attorney’s Office is now petitioning for Burley and the other man’s drug convictions to be vacated. 

It was not Burley’s first drug offense but it brought him the longest jail term of his life. 

He was released in August this year after serving six of the 15 years he was sentenced to. He had been in jail for a year beforehand awaiting trial and was let out on time served. 

The other defendant was released in 2013. If their sentences are vacated, both now have grounds to sue the police force.