Drug Dealer Gets
Life Term In Slaying of Md. Trooper
By Neely Tucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 15, 2001; Page B01
The investigation into the slaying of Maryland state trooper Edward M.
Toatley came to a somber conclusion in U.S. District Court yesterday as
a 24-year-old convicted drug dealer pleaded guilty to first-degree
murder and was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of
parole.As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors agreed not to pursue the
death penalty against Kofi Apea Orleans-Lindsay, of Silver Spring, who
set off a nationwide manhunt when he shot Toatley during an undercover
drug sting in Northeast Washington on Oct. 30, 2000."I was angry
about that at first," said Inez Toatley, the slain trooper's wife,
who agreed to the penalty after realizing that Orleans-Lindsay would die
behind bars.The three-hour hearing before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly
was extraordinary in its length and drama. Orleans-Lindsay confessed to
the killing. Inez Toatley told the court how she rushed to the hospital
to see her husband before he died. William O'Malley, the assistant U.S.
attorney on the case, paused on several occasions to blink back
tears.The most composed person in the courtroom seemed to be Orleans-Lindsay.His
voice flat, his face devoid of expression, the Ghanaian native told
Kollar-Kotelly that he took $3,500 in cash from the 37-year-old Toatley
that night in what was supposed to be a crack cocaine deal. He got out
of Toatley's unmarked Toyota 4-Runner about 8:30 p.m. in the 2000 block
of Douglas Street NE and pretended to go around the corner to pick up a
stash of drugs.He returned to the car a few minutes later, with a .380
semiautomatic pistol in the pocket of his sweat shirt. He stubbed out a
cigarette, pulled out the gun and pointed it at Toatley. The trooper
reached out and struck the gunman's wrist, but Orleans-Lindsay held on
to the gun. He said he shot Toatley in the right side of the
head."I was just carrying out what I decided to do," he said
when the judge asked whether Toatley had provoked him. "I didn't
give it any second thoughts."Undercover officers monitoring the
transaction were slow to respond, and Orleans-Lindsay escaped to New
York, where he was arrested two weeks later.Prosecutor Glenn L.
Kirschner yesterday outlined the evidence. Toatley's car was equipped
with hidden cameras, which videotaped the slaying. Detectives also
recovered the gun, the bullet slug and casing, the cigarette butt and
Orleans-Lindsay's key chain. Some items bore Orleans-Lindsay's DNA; the
odds of it being someone else's were 570 quadrillion to one, Kirschner
said. After Orleans-Lindsay entered his guilty plea, a friend of the
Toatley family, Gloria Wilson, read letters from Toatley's parents,
sister and eldest son. The letters were a moving portrayal of a family
devastated by grief and aching at the loss of "Eddie" in their
lives.Wilson wept as she read the letters aloud."No matter what I
do or think about, thoughts of my son still creep to the front,"
wrote Edgar Toatley, the slain trooper's father. "I was once the
patriarch of my family. I now cling to my daughter for
guidance.""I feel as if someone reached inside my chest and
ripped out my heart," Lilia Toatley, the victim's mother,
wrote.Inez Toatley told the judge that after learning her husband was
mortally wounded, she was rushed to Washington Hospital Center and was
ushered down a hallway lined with troopers. Her husband lay on a bed,
attached to a respirator."I put my head on his chest so I could
hear his heart beat," she said. "I talked to him. I told him
not to worry about the kids. I waited with my head on his chest, and
then I heard the doctor say he was going to take off the respirator, and
I lay there until I listened to his last heartbeat."Orleans-Lindsay
sat a few feet away, expressionless."With this sentence, there is
finality and there is closure," Kollar-Kotelly said. "It is my
hope that all of those affected by this judgment find peace."
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