While the man charged with killing senior Linda Trinh in her off-campus apartment in late January remains held without bail, police and prosecutors say that a clear picture of the suspect, 27-year-old Donta M. Allen, is emerging.
Police are trying to determine whether Allen is responsible for a theft that occurred just hours before his arrest last Wednesday, according to sources close to the investigation.
The victim in the theft case told police that she returned home from the Ottobar -- a music venue near campus -- just after midnight on Mar. 23, and subsequently noticed that her wallet, which had been inside of her purse, was missing.
She told police that she had encountered Allen during the evening, that he had access to her purse and that he was likely to blame for stealing her wallet. He was arrested for Trinh's murder just over 10 hours later.
Investigators say that if this incident is conclusively linked to Allen, it speaks to their suspect's history of theft -- the same motive that they believe led him to Trinh's room in The Charles apartment complex several times during intersession and ultimately on the day she was killed.
Last week, Allen apparently admitted to police that he intended to commit robbery on Jan. 23 when he entered Trinh's apartment believing that it was unoccupied.
Instead, he apparently found Trinh sleeping and admitted to assaulting her but said he did not commit murder, according to sources close to the investigation.
Trinh's roommate found her body submerged in a bathtub in the apartment the following day.
Despite Allen's denials, police say they are confident that he murdered Trinh.
In charging documents filed with the Baltimore City District Court, police alleged that "DNA belonging to Mr. Allen was found on the victim," and at a bail review hearing held last Friday morning, Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley ruled that Allen be held without bail.
She set a preliminary hearing date for April 22, but Joseph Sviatko, Public Information Officer for the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office, said that the State's Attorney might bring the case against Allen to a grand jury instead to decide whether there is enough evidence to go to trial.
In last Friday's hearing, Baltimore Assistant State's Attorney Barbara Richmond described Trinh's last minutes by saying that "the victim suffered."
Allen's lawyer, Warren A. Brown, asked the prosecution to produce more evidence against his client, but O'Malley deferred any such decision until a future court date.
"At a bail review hearing the only thing the court can consider is whether he is a flight risk or whether the person is a threat to public safety," Sviatko said.
Also at the hearing, pretrial investigators revealed new information about Allen. They said that he once attempted suicide in 1999 and that he has two prior arrests in Baltimore.
The first, for malicious destruction of property, occurred in 1998 but did not result in charges being filed.
The second occurred in June 2004 for possession of marijuana. In that case, he was given probation before judgment, meaning that the judge set conditions -- such as mandatory community service -- for Allen to complete before returning to the court in July 2005.
If he had successfully completed these requirements, the charge would have been cleared from his record.
But some who have worked with Allen said that the picture painted by prosecutors and police differs sharply from person they know.
He attended Perry Hall High School in Baltimore County where he did not graduate, but instead earned a General Educational Development certificate, Brown said. After high school, he worked at restaurants, including Rocky Run on St. Paul Street.
"He seemed like a pretty nice guy," said Sarah Bickett, a former co-worker of Allen's at Rocky Run. "I was definitely shocked when I saw his face on TV because he didn't seem like that type of person."
"He was always pretty outgoing, easy to get along with and funny. He'd always struck me as a nice, funny guy, but I didn't know him that well," said Jesse Fulton, another former co-worker from Rocky Run.
Fulton also recalled that Allen mentioned the murder to him in a recent conversation.
"One of the things that was really shocking was that one day when he came to visit, he brought it up. We were standing and talking and he was like, "I heard about what happened at your school about that girl,'" Fulton said.
But former Rocky Run co-worker Sarah Lash said that she was leery of Allen because of his age. "I always thought it was strange that a guy in his mid-20s would hang out at PJs, your average college bar. I always tried to avoid him in public due to awkwardness. I didn't necessarily want to be associated with him."
-- Staff writer Patrice Hutton contributed to this article
