This story was updated at 3:36 p.m. on Dec. 6, 2011.

A Lanham man accused of murdering his boss at Suburban Hospital on New Year’s Day told some people that he despised Roosevelt Brockington, Jr. and was going to "get" him, prosecutors said during opening statements Tuesday.

"He didn't just say that he didn't like the victim, Mr. Brockington. He didn't just say that he couldn't stand the victim, Mr. Brockington. He said he was going to ‘get’ him,” said prosecutor George E. Simms III. “He said it time and time again.”

Brockington was found stabbed more than 70 times in his face, neck, chest and back in his office in the basement of Suburban Hospital on Jan. 1, according to police accounts. He bled to death before doctors at the hospital and police arrived to find him on the floor with a 12-inch knife still stuck in his neck, Simms said.

Little, 50, was arrested Jan. 5 after a co-worker at the hospital saw him washing a ski mask and gloves with chemicals and then throwing the items in the trash, according to police. He is charged with first-degree murder for killing Brockington, 40, of Lusby.

Simms said Little was motivated to kill Brockington because he became ineligible for an annual raise after a negative performance review. Little also lost a second job at the federal courthouse in Greenbelt after Brockington changed his schedule at the hospital.

Brockington's actions threw him off his plan to pay off his home mortgage within five years, Simms said.

"The murder in this case was personal. The murder in this case was violent. The murder in this case was committed by a person who worked at Suburban Hospital. There's no doubt about it," he said.

Brockington's office is behind eight locked doors and a camera that tapes the entrance area stopped working the day before the murder. No cameras captured a suspect leaving the hospital that day, Simms said.

In his opening statement, Ronald Gottlieb, one of Little's defense attorneys, said police glossed over evidence that points to someone other than Little as Brockington's killer.

That evidence, according to Gottlieb, includes that:

Ÿ Police found no blood at Little's home, in his car or in his work locker;

Ÿ A man who lives next door to the hospital identified a different suspect walking down his street on the morning of the murder;

Ÿ Police found a number of items near the exit they say Little used to escape, including a piece of cardboard, a used condom, a vodka bottle and a syringe;

Ÿ None of those items were tested for DNA to link to other possible suspects;

Ÿ Other former employees could have been angry with Brockington at the time of his death.

He said the state's case was based on an abundance of speculation and an absence of facts and two tragedies have taken place.

"One is the untimely, brutal death of Mr. Brockington,” Gottlieb said. “The other tragedy in this case is that Mr. Little is accused of a crime he didn't commit."

Prior to the opening statements, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Marielsa Bernard ruled Tuesday that prosecutors could not have their forensic expert say she believed one of the gloves prosecutors hoped to introduce as evidence was stained with blood from Brockington.

Stephen Mercer, one of Little's attorneys and a forensics expert, said the identification of a small stain on the outside of the glove is not based on sound scientific evidence. An initial test of the blood turned up a result that was not in accordance with the rules of the Montgomery County forensic lab for a positive identification of human blood.

An outside company, Bode Technology, tested the glove Friday and found no evidence of human blood, according to court records.

The gloves do contain DNA from both Little and Brockington, Simms said. But DNA on a ski mask is identified as coming from a woman, Gottlieb said.

The case is scheduled to last eight days, but likely will end sooner, in part because Bernard has ruled prosecutors may not bring up Little's arrest history. Little was accused of killing his boss in 2003 in Washington, D.C., and was acquitted of that crime in 2006.

dgaines@gazette.net