Unprecedented security is in place inside and outside the Prince George's County Courthouse for the retrial of a man accused of ordering from jail a hit on his uncle in order to prevent him from testifying in a double murder trial.
Brian Mayhew is accused of ordering Stanley Winston and Anthony Cannon to kill his uncle.
Mayhew was convicted in the double murder and is serving life in prison, but the jury could not reach a verdict in the trial of Mayhew, Winston and Cannon in July.
The uncle, Nicoh Mayhew, told a grand jury his nephew and friend Kenan Myers shot and killed two men in 2011. But before he could testify in the actual trial, Nicoh was killed and his 2-year-old son was injured in a shooting outside his mother's Seat Pleasant apartment in 2012.
Brian Mayhew ordered the hit on his uncle while he was locked up in Prince George's County jail, prosecutors said.
It allegedly was done with a series of security loopholes commonly used by inmates, according to court testimony. Brian Mayhew allegedly had a girlfriend outside the jail set up Google Voice numbers, and he used another inmate's telephone ID to communicate with two hit men, prosecutors said.
The defense maintains Nicoh was a drug dealer with a lot of enemies, and even with the recorded jail calls and video of people running to kill Mayhew, the state has no real physical evidence, only circumstantial, which may be what led to the hung jury last July.
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Mayhew and his co-defendants are housed in isolation at the Prince George’s County jail and are only allowed to communicate with their attorneys through monitored calls during the trial.
At the door to the courthouse, signs say no cellphones nor electronic devices are allowed inside the Mayhew courtroom. The actual courtroom has its own magnetometer and security procedures, additional sheriff’s deputies, and security to lock and unlock the courtroom’s doors behind each person who enters.
