The lawyer for a Maryland man charged in the gruesome slaying of a Prince George’s County elementary school teacher says there’s a lack of “hard evidence” tying him to the crime.
The remarks came during a bond review hearing in Prince George’s County Circuit Court during which Judge John Bielec ruled that 33-year-old Harold Landon III would remain behind bars as the case continues, calling details of the crime laid out by prosecutors “horrific.”
Landon was arrested earlier this month in the killing of 59-year-old Mariame Toure Sylla.
The third-grade teacher at Dora Kennedy French Immersion School went for a walk in Schrom Hills Park in Greenbelt on the evening of July 29 and was never seen again. Sylla was listed as missing for more than a month. Her dismembered body, missing its head, neck and limbs, was later found near a pond in Clinton, Maryland, some 20 miles away.
During the hearing Wednesday, defense attorneys sought to downplay much of the evidence against Landon.
According to charging documents, a witness saw a man driving a white-colored older model Chevy pickup driving near the pond where Sylla’s remains were discovered. The witness saw the man get out of the truck carrying something in his hands that he dumped on some rocks and then saw him appearing to clean his hands in the water.
Landon owns a white 2004 Chevy Silverado pickup, according to police.
In addition, prosecutors said surveillance video cameras captured images of Landon near the pond about 9:30 p.m. the night before Sylla’s remains were discovered and that cellphone location data indicated both Landon and Sylla were in the Greenbelt park the night the teacher went missing, and that Landon was in the area of the Clinton pond two days later — the night before the body was found.
Defense: ‘Lack of hard evidence’
“The allegations are concerning, but what’s also concerning is the lack of hard evidence,” defense attorney Bre Jones told the judge.
She said plenty of people own older-model Chevys and that Landon grew up in the area and lives in Prince George’s County, so the fact the cellphone location data places him in the park and near the pond where the remains were discovered isn’t necessarily a connection to the crime.
When authorities searched Landon’s house in University Park, they uncovered several power tools including a reciprocating saw that authorities said could have been used to dismember Sylla’s body.
“Plenty of people have power tools,” the defense attorney said, saying of the case, “Everything about it is circumstantial.”
Prosecutors: We have a strong case
On their part, prosecutors strongly disputed the defense attorney’s characterization of the evidence.
“We are very confident that we have the right person. And we are very confident that we have a strong case against Mr. Landon,” Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy told reporters outside the courtroom during a news conference Wednesday.
Every case involves a mix of circumstantial evidence and direct evidence, “and in this case, we have both,” she said.
Jonathan Church, with the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office, said several photos of Landon taken near where the remains were discovered in Clinton are another key piece of evidence.
One of the photos was taken by the witness who saw Landon dumping things near the pond, according to authorities. The others came from traffic cameras and a surveillance camera from inside a service station on the trail leading away from where the remains were dumped.
“It’s a very strong piece of evidence to show his path of travel and where he went,” Church said.
‘History of abusing women’
Landon has already been behind bars for the past month. He was arrested Aug. 1 — two days after Sylla was last seen — in what authorities have called an unrelated domestic violence incident, involving assault and robbery. In that case, Landon is accused of assaulting the mother of his 2-year-old son.
He was also previously convicted of assault in 2019 for strangling a woman in North Carolina, Braveboy said.
Authorities still haven’t described a motive for Sylla’s killing or why exactly they were first suspicious of Landon.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Braveboy confirmed that, at the time Landon was arrested in the domestic violence case, he was not yet a suspect in Sylla’s killing.
She said there’s no evidence, so far, that Landon is connected to any other similar crimes in the area. But she also pointed out the steps she said he took to cover his tracks by dismembering the body.
“The cover up, and the attempt to really ensure that no one could identify the body, from my perspective, was deliberate, so it showed a certain level of sophistication and thought,” Braveboy said. “And so the question would be: Is this the first time? I don’t know. But what we do know is that Mr. Landon has a history of abusing women.”
‘This one’s personal’
Braveboy, the county’s top prosecutor, is personally handling the case — something she has only done three or four times since being elected to her position in 2018.
“This case … it hit me,” she said.
She said she first got the call earlier this summer about the missing teacher on her birthday and held out hope she would be found alive. But when the case turned tragic, she decided to devote herself to bringing justice for the community.
“We’re all human, you get connected to cases, you get connected to people … I felt strongly that I wanted to be a part, personally, of seeking justice for her. This one’s personal. It’s just very personal,” she said.
WTOP’s John Domen contributed reporting from Prince George’s County Circuit Court.
