Murder alleged in death of robbery victim

Motorist reported holdup moments before collapsing

Friday, July 25, 2008

Steven Joseph Brown-Santos, a 20-year-old man who authorities say recently arrived in Leonardtown from Puerto Rico, remains jailed without bond on the original carjacking and robbery charges filed by St. Mary’s detectives from the June 20 attack on Billy Gene Gurley of Lexington Park.

‘‘I think if that hadn’t have happened, my father would still be here,” Robin Connelly, a daughter of Gurley, said Thursday from her home in Florida.

‘‘I think that it’s appropriate,” Connelly said of the new murder indictment against the suspect. ‘‘He has virtually destroyed our family.”

On that afternoon last month, Gurley drove to an appointment at the dentist office of Dr. James Dabbs in Leonardtown, detectives said, as Brown-Santos left his own vehicle at a nearby shopping center and walked along Route 5 to the dentist’s parking lot. Police described Gurley as a random victim of an armed assailant looking for money.

Brown-Santos forced Gurley at gunpoint to get back into his sedan, court papers state, and Brown-Santos drove the vehicle back to the shopping area, identified in a police release as the Leonardtown Centre shopping center. The suspect robbed Gurley of $37 and a school ring, the release states, before getting out of the car and running to his own vehicle.

Gurley drove back to the dentist’s office parking lot and asked another patient to summon help, detectives said. Gurley was suffering chest pains and trouble breathing when he arrived there, and he was pronounced dead shortly after an ambulance took him to nearby St. Mary’s Hospital. An autopsy preliminarily indicates that he died from cardiac arrest.

‘‘I went up and saw the medical examiner, and she said she has absolutely no problem in stating that the death of Mr. Gurley was related to the traumatic crime of being robbed,” St. Mary’s State’s Attorney Richard Fritz said Thursday at his office in Leonardtown.

Fritz said the murder charges are supported by previous appeals court rulings in Maryland, including from the death about 20 years ago of a hotel desk clerk from ‘‘adrenaline induced heart failure” after a robbery in Montgomery County.

‘‘Which is exactly what happened in this case,” Fritz said.

Gurley’s statements about the robbery before his death spurred the investigation that initially focused on his whereabouts that day, an inquiry that ultimately was aided by a tip from an anonymous caller. Detective Robert Merritt filed the original charges against the suspect after a raid at his apartment, court papers state, which led investigators to recovering a loaded handgun and other evidence including the missing ring. If Brown-Santos is convicted of first-degree murder, Fritz said he likely will seek a penalty in the case of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Gurley was retired from careers with the Navy and DynCorp, and still doing part-time work. An avid hunter, Gurley served on the board of directors of the Mattapany Rod and Gun Club.