A Gaithersburg shopping mall employee fatally stabbed last week was attacked “without provocation” by a 25-year-old acquaintance who had reportedly been hearing voices recently and believed he was living outside his own body, according to new police allegations filed in court.
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Trenton Flowers-Jackson, charged with first-degree murder after being arrested over the weekend, made a brief court appearance Monday during which attorneys said he would receive a psychiatric evaluation while he continues being held without bond.
Police assert that shortly before 11 a.m. on Feb. 21, he walked into a Metro by T-Mobile store inside the Lakeforest Mall where Jose Alexander Maldonado, 23, was working. Flowers-Jackson “immediately began stabbing the victim,” detectives alleged in the court filing. “The suspect continued to stab the victim as the victim attempted to run out of the store.”
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Maldonado instead fell to the ground. Officers who arrived tried to treat his wounds and asked if he knew who had stabbed him. “Trent, Trent,” Maldonado allegedly said.
He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy showed he had been cut and stabbed in the face, ear, stomach, shoulder and back, detectives said.
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The assailant appears to have come to the mall with both a knife and a hammer. As he repeatedly stabbed the victim, according to store video cited in court records, the hammer fell to the floor. The suspect picked up the hammer before fleeing, police said. There is no mention in the court records of a knife or hammer being recovered by police.
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The court filings show Montgomery County police had two recent contacts with Flowers-Jackson.
On Jan. 12, his mother called police to ask them to check on her son, according to court filings.
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“The mother advised her son ‘has been showing signs of psychosis, hearing voices and believes he is outside his body and having delusions,’ ” detectives wrote in an arrest affidavit. Officers went to Flowers-Jackson’s apartment on Siesta Key Way in Rockville, where he lived by himself, records state. Detectives reviewed body-camera video captured by their colleagues.
“Officers spoke to Trenton Flowers-Jackson and he advised he was OK and that he did not need any help,” the detectives wrote.
One month later, on Feb. 12, Flowers-Jackson himself called the police and said his computer had been hacked and he was being stalked. A responding officer came out to check, and the interaction was also recorded and reviewed by detectives. “Flowers-Jackson advised the responding officer that ‘somebody has been stalking my computer’ and ‘my phone is being redirected,’ ” the arrest affidavit states.
Flowers-Jackson appeared in court Monday via video feed from jail. An attorney representing him, Lucy Larkins, said corrections officials indicated they wanted him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
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“We will also be arranging for a doctor to meet with him,” Larkins said.
Larkins did not address the allegations against Flowers-Jackson. She requested that a scheduled bond review for him be waived, which District Judge Amy Bills granted. Flowers-Jackson said little in court, as is typical for such hearings, but at its conclusion did say, politely, “Thank you, judge.”
A gate was pulled down over the Metro by T-Mobile entrance on Monday.
“Store temporarily closed,” stated a typed note taped to a window, which directed shoppers to two other store locations
Outside the store, the mall appeared to be operating as usual. Shoppers sauntered down the main aisles. Diners and others sat in the food court.
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“I feel safe here,” John Edwards, 57, said while playing chess with a friend in the food court.
He attributed the stabbing not to anything at the mall but to what he sees as a wider trend of more violence in society. “To me, it’s the new normal,” Edwards said.
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Detectives pieced together their case based on the victim’s alleged identification of the stabber as “Trent,” mall video, cellphone records and by speaking with a close friend of Maldonado. Video of the stabbing does not appear to show the attacker’s entire face, according to court records, and there is no mention of a witnesses to the attack other than Maldonado.
The friend, identified in court records by his initials, said Maldonado had introduced him to a man named “Trent” a couple of years ago, and Trent subsequently became convinced the friend had hacked into his computer. The friend said his communication with Trent stopped at that time.
Employee fatally stabbed at mall in Montgomery, police say
He added that Maldonado — about three weeks ago — brought up the name again.
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“Do you remember Trent?” Maldonado asked, according to the friend. “He said you were breaking into his computer.”
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The two didn’t talk any more about Trent, other than to agree that he “was crazy,” detectives wrote.
The friend also said video of the stabbing showed an assailant who walked “exactly like Trent,” detectives alleged. Police found no evidence of an actual computer hacking.
Surveillance video showed the attacker to be “heavy-set,” but his face was obscured by a blue medical mask and a hood from his jacket, according to the arrest affidavit.
Investigators compared video from the mall with the earlier body-worn police videos of Flowers-Jackson, and found the images “extremely similar,” police allege. A check of Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration records revealed Flowers-Jackson to be 5 feet 10 inches and 285 pounds.
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Investigators also came to believe Flowers-Jackson had come to the phone store just before 6 p.m. the day before the homicide, when he asked a female employee if she was working alone and quickly left, according to court records. The investigators learned that Maldonado had left the store just minutes earlier. The clothing worn by the store visitor matched clothing of the attacker seen on video of the stabbing the following day.
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It is not clear if attorneys for Flowers-Jackson will pursue a defense of “not criminally responsible,” which is Maryland’s version of the insanity plea.
In Maryland, people can be deemed not criminally responsible if they essentially did not understand that what they were doing was wrong. More specifically, the law reads: “A defendant is not criminally responsible for criminal conduct if, at the time of that conduct, the defendant, because of a mental disorder or mental retardation, lacks substantial capacity to: 1) appreciate the criminality of that conduct, or 2) conform that conduct to the requirements of law.”