The trial for David Linthicum, who is accused of shooting two Baltimore County Police officers, will be postponed from November until May of next year, a Baltimore County judge ruled Tuesday.
“In light of the ongoing discovery issues in this case, I am going to postpone it,” Judge Dennis M. Robinson Jr. said Tuesday. In previous hearings, Linthicum’s attorneys have sparred with prosecutors over the pace of discovery, the process of exchanging evidence that both sides have gathered.
A grand jury in March indicted Linthicum, 25, on five counts of attempted murder, along with charges of assault, carjacking and firearms offenses.
Linthicum’s father, John “Whit” Linthicum, called police on Feb. 8 and said his son was suicidal. When officers arrived at the Cockeysville home, Linthicum fired a rifle at them, wounding Officer Barry Jordan, according to charging documents. Authorities said that the next day, Linthicum shot and critically injured Detective Jonathan Chih and stole his vehicle.
The multi-agency search ended in Fallston early in the morning on Feb. 10, when Harford County Sheriff’s deputies surrounded Linthicum.
Deborah Katz Levi, director of special litigation for the Maryland Office of Public Defender, said because of what she called the prosecution’s delays in providing evidence, she has not been able to engage an FBI agent to serve as an expert and otherwise prepare her case.
At an earlier hearing, Levi said there was a “0% chance” that she and James Dills, the district public defender for Baltimore County, would be prepared for trial in November because the state was slow to provide evidence such as body camera footage.
Baltimore County Deputy State’s Attorney John Cox has said he has complied with discovery requirements and turned over materials as prosecutors received them from Baltimore County Police. He told Robinson on Tuesday that the state was not requesting a postponement.
Robinson previously denied a request from the prosecution to remove Levi from the case, with the state arguing she had a conflict of interest because her husband’s brother and law partner is representing Chih in his workers’ compensation case.
Robinson ruled that Linthicum’s original Nov. 2 trial date would be pushed back to May 20, 2024. The trial is expected to last 10 or 11 days. Linthicum’s next court date, a hearing to further discuss discovery, is Nov. 2.
