Salisbury man convicted in duct tape murder

Salisbury resident faces penalty of life imprisonment or death.

By Sharahn D. Boykin • Staff Writer • December 19, 2009

SALISBURY -- A 39-year-old man charged in the murder of a Salisbury man was convicted of first-degree felony murder in court on Friday.

Alan Ralph Stanford is the last of three Salisbury residents charged in the murder of 27-year-old Brookes Edward Harmon. Stanford, Carlos Lamont Mills, 29, and Shala Nicole Dorman, 22, were indicted by a grand jury after paramedics found Harmon unconscious inside Dorman's home in January, in the 600 block of Dennis Street, with duct tape around his wrists and ankles.

A third Salisbury man, 31-year-old Lamont Mitchell, alleged to have had a role in the murder, was found dead Jan. 28, his death ruled a suicide.

Prosecutors allege drugs and money were the motive behind the homicide.

In addition to first-degree murder, the jury convicted Stanford on armed robbery, robbery, attempted armed robbery, attempted robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, false imprisonment, and reckless endangerment.

The jury found him not guilty of second-degree murder.

First-degree murder carries a mandatory penalty of death or life imprisonment, according to state law.

Stanford did not testify during the four-day trial, but his co-defendant, Mills, told the jury Stanford beat Harmon with a broom until it broke before he sodomized him with it.

Harmon died from asphyxia, according to the state Medical Examiner's Office. And while Standford may not have personally killed Harmon, he could be held responsible if he was present when Harmon was killed.

"The person who aids and abets the commission of a crime is just as guilty as the person who commits the crime," said Wicomico County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Beckstead as she read instructions to jurors. "Felony murder does not require the state to prove the defendant intended to kill the victim."

From: http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20091219/NEWS01/912190345