Hamlin Violates Release Conditions; Arrested Again in the District

A man accused of stealing the car of slain American University professor Sue Marcum was arrested again Tuesday in Washington, D.C., after violating his pre-trial release conditions. After prosecutors filed a request Jan. 28, his bond was revoked and a warrant was issued for his arrest in Montgomery County.

Hamlin was due for a pre-trial hearing in Montgomery County Circuit Court Thursday, but the hearing didn’t move forward. Hamlin, who had been released on $50,000 bond and was living with his father in Silver Spring, had violated his curfew and “absconded” back to the District, a violation of his pre-trial release conditions, according to court documents.

Hamlin was found driving Marcum’s Jeep Oct. 25 in the District, hours after a victim of an apparent burglary gone wrong. Prosecutors said Hamlin, 18, led police on a high-speed chase through several D.C. police districts before he was arrested.

After being transported to Montgomery County, Hamlin was ordered held on $1 million bond on car theft charges. Though he hasn’t been charged in the murder, prosecutors argued that Hamlin was “critical” to the investigation of Marcum’s homicide.

Hamlin’s bond was later and he was released to live with his father on Jan. 21. He was placed on electronic monitoring and ordered not to return to Washington, D.C., and to maintain a curfew of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m, according to court documents. The tracking device lost a signal Jan. 25 and stopped sending communications around 11 p.m. Jan. 26, meaning the battery had likely died, the documents read. Hamlin didn’t report to pre-trial service offices the following day.

“I spoke with his father this morning, who advised that he did not come home last night and he has no idea where he is,” read a Jan. 28 email from pre-trial services to prosecutor Margaret Schweitzer.

The documents also read that Hamlin’s father Mahdi Shabazz, who had been ordered to supervise Hamlin, had himself been found guilty of several past offenses.

“It appears the court was unaware Mr. Shabazz was found guilty of possessing a firearm as a prohibited person on Nov. 22, 2010,” according to the documents.

Shabazz is pending sentencing in that case, and was also found guilty of a misdemeanor sex offense in the District on Nov. 30, 2010, the documents read.

A judge ordered Hamlin’s bond to be revoked. Once Hamlin is transported back to Montgomery County, he will be scheduled for a new bond review hearing, Schweitzer told Patch.

Hamlin’s lawyer, Brian McDaniel, told Patch that Hamlin had returned to the District to check in with the Department of Child Services. At the new bond review hearing, McDaniel said he would likely ask the judge for the same amount of bond and the same release conditions, but will ask that Hamlin be placed with his mother, Doreen Hamlin, in the District.

“The mother would like him home,” McDaniel said. “She will be able to monitor him if he should be placed there.”

He said a “disagreement” led to Hamlin leaving his father’s home. McDaniel said he would ask the judge to keep the originally scheduled trial date of April 6.

Court documents also revealed that Hamlin has a child, which McDaniel said was an infant and lives with the child’s mother in the District.