Well-Loved Suburban Hospital Engineer An 'Unlikely' Murder Victim

Roosevelt Brockington, Jr. was a well-loved man who became an unlikely victim of homicide at his own workplace, prosecutors said at a Monday sentencing for the man

Keith D. Little, of Lanham, was sentenced to life without parole in the killing of Brockington, his supervisor. Brockington was found stabbed more than 70 times in Suburban Hospital’s basement boiler room, where both men worked, on Jan. 1, 2011. Little was arrested several days after the crime, when in scalding hot, chemically treated water, prosecutors said at Little’s December trial.

At the sentencing hearing Monday, family, friends and prosecutors painted a picture of Brockington’s personality for Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Marielsa A. Bernard, along with the devastating impact of his loss on those close to him.

A graduate of in Greenbelt, Brockington was a runningback on the football team in both high school and college, according to prosecutor Robert Hill. A man dedicated to his work, his family and his church, Brockington held down two full-time jobs as a boiler engineer, the same profession as his father, Hill said.

Known to friends as “Brock,” he cared for a daughter and regularly attended St. John Church of God in Northeast Washington, D.C., where he was a deacon and singer. Now at St. John, a seat next to the pulpit where he sat is cloaked in black, Hill said.

“I miss my son,” Brockington’s father, Roosevelt Brockington, Sr., told Bernard. “He was a great inspiration in my life.”

Brockington’s pastor at St. John, who has suffered a stroke and uses a wheelchair, attended each day of Brockington's murder trial and was present at the sentencing hearing Monday. Sallie Bruce told the judge that Brockington used to call her daily. “I miss those 9 a.m. calls,” Bruce said.

Friends and family told of Brockington’s willingness to lend a hand to those in need – offering a place to stay for his sister, a single mother; helping a friend re-build a church; offering up his car when someone else’s had broken down.

“I will never see him again, and I never got to say goodbye,” wrote Brockington’s nephew Anthony, 12, in a letter read to Bernard by his mother. “I will never be able to hug him again and see that big happy smile.”

There were tears as a DVD of Brockington singing a gospel hymn at his church was played in court.

“I've learned how to suffer, for if I suffer, I gain eternal life,” Brockington sang in the video. “When I see Jesus, all my troubles, they will be over.”

Friends and family members cried and whispered “yes” as Bernard handed down her sentence. Following the sentencing, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said it was “richly deserved.”

“The Suburban Hospital family hopes that the verdict and sentence will bring some peace to Roosevelt Brockington’s family,” Suburban Hospital spokeswoman Susan Laine wrote in an emailed statement to Patch. “We believe the best way we can honor the memory of our deceased colleague is to continue our focus on providing the very best care for the patients who depend on us.”

In arguing for a sentence of life without parole, prosecutor George Simms said Little demonstrated anger, rage, disregard for human life and evil as he committed the crime. Brockington’s body showed no defensive wounds, indicating he had no opportunity to defend himself, Simms said.

“The impact of this crime on [Brockington's] family can’t be calculated,” Simms said. “It is incalculable.”

Prosecutors said Little “hated” Brockington for giving him a negative performance review and changing his hours, forcing Little to lose a second job.

Simms called Little a "dangerous man" and said he was a “cold-blooded murderer” of two people, referencing in the murder of a co-worker in Washington, D.C.

Jurors were not informed of the acquittal at trial, and Bernard said she didn’t consider the previous case in her sentencing.

Before hearing his sentence, Little, dressed in a suit and wearing glasses, addressed the court.

“I feel sad about what happened to Mr. Brockington,” Little told the court. “But what happened to Mr. Brockington doesn’t have anything to do with me. We were good friends.”

Little claimed his bank statements proved he was buying coffee at a 7-Eleven in Prince George's County around 7:15 a.m. on the day of the murder. He claimed the jury was falsely led to believe he stayed at the hospital that morning, saying he was “railroaded.”

After the sentencing, State's Attorney John McCarthy called Little's statement a "controlled rant" and said Little "refused to take any responsibility for the crime."

In handing down her sentence, Bernard referenced statements from Brockington’s friends and family along with letters she received from Little’s family.

“To lose someone in such a sudden and terrible way is a trauma all the members of Mr. Brockington’s family, his church family and his friends will have to deal with the rest of their lives,” Bernard said.

Letters in support of Little, she said, described a man in many ways similar to Brockington. Quoting from a letter submitted by Little’s wife, Bernard read, “He’s a good man who has always been there for me, and has been a wonderful father to all of his children.”

“It’s difficult to reconcile the man I saw depicted in the letter and the man that stabbed Mr. Brockington over 70 times,” Bernard said.

Little committed a “brutal, senseless” crime and pre-meditated the attack in a “cold and calculated” way, Bernard said. That Little attempted to destroy evidence, she said, demonstrated that he committed the crime.

"Mr. Brockington was given no opportunity to defend himself,” Bernard said. “It was truly a terrible way to die.”

Following the sentencing, Roosevelt Brockington, Sr. said the sentence brought “a little relief,” but not closure.

"Everything that's been done won't bring my son back," Brockington said.