A murder trial began Tuesday for the man accused of killing a Maryland teacher who disappeared two summers ago. Her dismembered body was found days later.
Harold Francis Landon III is charged with the first-degree murder of Mariame Toure Sylla, who taught second grade in Prince George's County Public Schools.
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WATCH HEREOpening statements were made Tuesday morning, with prosecutors first presenting a photo of the victim to the jury. Then, they showed a graphic photo of her torso, recovered from the banks of a retention pond in Clinton, Maryland, in the summer of 2023.
State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy is prosecuting the case herself. She asked the jury: Who would do something like this to such a beautiful woman? To answer that question, she played a call the defendant allegedly made from jail, saying: "I literally let the savage inside of me out."
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SIGN UP Braveboy told the jury that is the kind of person Landon is, calling the killing brutal and calculated, without specifically saying how he allegedly did it.
She said there is physical evidence in the case, saying Sylla's DNA was found on Landon's boots and her clothing items were found in the bed of his truck. And, Braveboy said, cell phone records show their phones "tracked the same path" without saying exactly how the victim and defendant might have crossed paths.
Police have said that detectives determined that the suspect and the victim were in the park at the same time. They didn't believe the two knew each other beforehand, Prince George's County Police Chief Malik Aziz said after Landon was identified as a suspect.
On July 29, 2023, Sylla went to take a walk at Schrom Hills Park, not far from her Greenbelt home. She was reported missing after not showing up for evening prayers.
In court, a witness told the jury that he saw someone in a white pickup truck carrying something in the area where Sylla's dismembered body would later be found. He snapped photos of the truck. It was dark at the time, he said.
That same witness said he found Sylla's torso the next day and called police, launching the murder investigation.
Landon's attorney, Richard Rydelek, objected to the state's use of gruesome photos of the victim's body, claiming they were trying to conduct an "emotional stampede." He urged jurors to make a decision based on evidence and not seek retribution for her death.
"A fair trial is not a trial ruled by inflamed passions," he said.
Rydelek said there is no motive for the killing and the medical examiner didn't conclude how Sylla died.
He suggested that Sylla's death could have been an accident, that maybe, in a panic, someone could have hit a pedestrian at night and made some bad decisions, but that doesn't prove first-degree murder, he argued.
Braveboy has said she wanted to prosecute this case personally to bring justice to the victim, her family and the community.
Prosecutors expect testimony to stretch into next week.
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