Trial begins in beating death

Witnesses describe their efforts to help the Germantown victim after watching a group repeatedly kick and stomp him

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Testimony began Monday in the trial of the first suspect prosecuted in the beating death of a Germantown man following a high school football game in September.

By Tuesday afternoon, two witnesses to the fight that resulted in Stephone Wiggins’ fatal injuries told the court what they saw and described their efforts to help the victim. And two county police officers working the Northwest-Seneca Valley football game described their pursuit of one of the suspects.

In a video of a police interview with suspect Perry Sims, 17, shown in court Tuesday, the Boyds teen talks about what happened the night Wiggins, 23, sustained his fatal injuries.

Sims and his co-defendant Quatrell Oladele Adedeji, 19, encountered Wiggins on Wisteria Drive, behind the Seneca Valley High School football field. Adedeji is said to have struck Wiggins in the head with a novelty baseball bat provided by Sims.

‘‘Stephone said, ‘Yeah, just what I’ve been waiting for,’ and took off his shirt,” Sims told Montgomery County Police Det. Darren Francke in the video. ‘‘Quatrell said, ‘Give me the bat,’ so I did.”

Wiggins was struck with the bat and then kicked by several people while he was on the ground.

‘‘As soon as he fell, people were hitting him. I kicked him once and noticed that he wasn’t moving,” Sims continued, indicating his kick hit Wiggins’ leg.

Sims estimated the group kicked and stomped Wiggins for about a minute.

The attack occurred Sept. 16. Sims was interviewed as a witness the next day. The police interview was taped Sept. 23 after his arrest, and just hours before Wiggins died from brain injuries.

Sims was indicted on second-degree murder and first-degree assault. Adedeji, of Germantown, faces the same charges; his trail is set for April.

In his opening statement Monday, the victim’s birthday, Assistant State’s Attorney Jeffrey Wennar pointed at Sims as told the jury:

‘‘[Wiggins] won’t be celebrating his 24th birthday because of this man’s actions the night of Sept. 16.”

Sims sat quietly with his attorney Christine Gage and listened. His mother and stepfather also listened. Gage did not make an opening statement.

Sims’ police interview was shown while prosecutors questioned the detective in court Tuesday. On the tape, Francke explains Sims his rights, and Sims says he understands and signs a document to that effect. At one point Sims indicates some surprise at his then second-degree attempted murder charge based on the fact that he provided the bat.

Earlier Tuesday, jurors heard testimony from two witnesses to the altercation. Erin Meyer, 24, of Germantown was driving along Wisteria Drive when the fight spilled out into the road in front of her car. She and her boyfriend, Daniel Kleinman, who was driving in his car behind her, were driving back to her house after having dinner in Gaithersburg.

Adedeji, who was wearing a blue Detroit Lions football jersey, and Wiggins were gesturing towards each other and appeared to be in a verbal argument. She noticed several other African-American males with Adedeji.

‘‘I was watching. I became concerned because of what was going on,” Meyer said. ‘‘I looked back at Danny to see what I should do. I turned right back and when I looked right back [Adedeji] was holding a teal 18-inch or so baseball bat. He was holding it at the base and slapping it into his hand.”

Suddenly, Adedeji ran toward Wiggins and the two wound up between Meyer and Kleinman’s cars, she said.

At that point, Kleinman testified, Adedeji swung to strike Wiggins in the stomach but he jumped out of the way.

Adedeji swung a second time and struck Wiggins in the head, he said.

Wiggins fell to the ground, his head landing next to the front left tire of Kleinman’s car, he said.

Meyer said she quickly exited her vehicle after watching in her rear view mirror what she believed was the group of men in a semi-circle kicking and punching the person laying on the street.

She yelled at Adedeji that she was going to call the police, she said.

At that point, Meyer said, Adedeji ran away from the scene and Meyer, who is certified in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and First-Aid, began to check Wiggins’ vital signs.

Police officers arrived almost immediately, both Kleinman and Meyer said.

Officers issued a lookout for someone who was wearing the blue Detroit Lions football jersey.

Just before that lookout was announced, Northwest High School’s Educational Facilities Officer Daniel Hunt said he noticed Adedeji walk by him where he was stationed on Crystal Rock Drive with Officer Rose Borisow. Both officers were assigned to work the game that night.

‘‘Just prior to that [lookout] a large group of young men had passed me talking louder than everyone else,” Borisow testified Tuesday. ‘‘One man in particular was sweating profusely and saying, ‘We gotta get out of here, we gotta get out of here.’”

Hunt and Borisow both started to pursue Adedeji and when they ‘‘pounced on him” he started to fight them off. Adedeji was able to get away and run toward a field, they said. ‘‘We actually locked eyes with each other,” Borisow said. ‘‘And he threw the bat down.”

Adedeji was apprehended a short time later in a field off of Crystal Rock Drive across from the high school, and Borisow recovered the bat.

Adedeji was positively identified by Meyer and Kleinman at that time.

Also Tuesday, Seneca Valley Principal Suzanne Maxey and Vice Principal Dave Allen testified.

The only witness to testify Monday was Sgt. William H. Whalen, who was the second officer to arrive at the scene of the fight. He described the scene as looking like ‘‘more of a traffic accident than a fight.”

‘‘I did everything I could to get him to respond to me,” Whalen said of Wiggins. ‘‘At no time that I was there, did he respond to me. He made low gurgling sounds.”

Before the trial reconvened Tuesday morning, Wiggins’ mother, Stephanie Freeman, brought prosecutors some chocolate birthday cake left over from a small gathering of family and friends who celebrated what would have been her son’s 24th birthday Monday evening.

Freeman is expected to testify today.

‘‘I’m glad that this is happening,” she said of the court proceedings, but added, ‘‘There will never be closure because there will always be the question of why.”