Trial scheduled for teen charged in deacon's death

Raleigh, N.C. — The murder trial of a teenager charged in the Oct. 23, 2007, shooting death of a Raleigh deacon is scheduled to begin Monday.

Latrell Cyrell Latham was a ninth-grader at Millbrook High School and was in jail on an unrelated armed robbery charge on Nov. 13, 2007, when he was charged in the death of Richard Gus Brown.

Brown, 74, had returned from a meeting at his church and was checking his mail outside his Wallingford Drive apartment when he was shot.

During a status hearing about the case Thursday, Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway denied defense attorney Jeff Cutler's request to delay the trial.

Cutler said he had only recently received information that prosecutors say put his client at the scene of the crime.

District Attorney Howard Cummings said Latham's palm print and fingerprints were found at the scene.