Man Charged in Burgess Murder

From The Captial:

 Nicole Burgess of Davidsonville, victim of stabbing in 2013

Terrence Robert Proctor, 37, of the 4100 blk. of Oliver Street, Hyattsville, Md., has been charged

with First Degree Murder, Second Degree Murder, and Manslaughter

 

    The stabbing death of a 37-year-old woman inside her Davidsonville home last year was tied to the marijuana trade, Anne Arundel police said Monday.

    Police announced the arrest of Terrence Robert Proctor, 37, of Hyattsville, in the death of Nicole Burgess. Proctor was arrested Friday in Hyattsville after he was indicted for first-degree murder by a county grand jury earlier that day, according to online court records.

Following a bail review hearing in Annapolis, Proctor is being held at the Jennifer Road Detention Center in Parole on $4 million bail, police said Monday afternoon from the agency's official Twitter account.

Burgess was found dead along with her dog, a pit bull mix that also had been stabbed to death, by two acquaintances inside her home in the 3300 block of Royale Glen Court on the morning of March 22, 2013.

    Capt. Herbert Hasenpusch, head of the police's Criminal Investigations Division, theorized that the dog became agitated and tried to defend Burgess during a struggle inside the home.

    "The scene there was quite brutal," Hasenpusch told reporters at a press conference Monday morning at the police's Millersville headquarters.

    Proctor was convicted of attempted second-degree murder in 1998, in Prince George's County Circuit Court, according to online court records.

    Proctor gained the attention of investigators not long after the year-and-a-half investigation into Burgess' murder began.  Proctor and Burgess had a buyer-seller relationship involving marijuana,  Hasenpusch said.

    The relationship lasted for only a few months and there is nothing indicating that it became intimate or personal, Hasenpusch said.

    "They're relationship was purely business," Hasenpusch said.

    Hasenpusch described Burgess as a "mid-level" drug dealer. Proctor had been expected at the home to make a purchase of marijuana on the morning that Burgess' body was discovered.

    Although he declined to provide specifics, Hasenpusch said that investigators were able to tie Proctor to the crime through a combination of biological and electonic evidence, as well as witness statements. While investigators do not know whether the murder was the result of a dispute over money or a robbery attempt, police believe it to be tied to the drug business, Hasenpusch said.

    Hasenpusch declined to say whether drugs were found at the home.

    The March 2013 murder stunned the residents of the rural Davidsonville community where homes sit on two- and three-acree plots and sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

    "We believe the victim in this case as a drug dealer for many, many years" in the community, Police Chief Kevin Davis said.

    The home had been in Burgess' family for years and was originally owned by her grandmother. It was inherited by Burgess' mother who ultimately gave it to her daughter. It sold last year for $425,000, according to online property records.

    Burgess' aunt and uncle continue to live next door to the home. Reached Monday morning by phone, aunt Mary Burgess said that she was relieved to learn of the arrest.

    "I'm very happy that they caught somebody, we've all been waiting for a long time," Burgess' aunt said. "She didn't deserve what happened to her - we loved her."

 The original article about the murder is at:
http://davidsonvillenews.blogspot.com/2013/03/nicole-burgess-is-murder-victim.html