Editor's note: A previous version of this story contained the mug shot for a different Troy Lucas. The image has been replaced. ABC2 regrets the error.
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An alleged Dead Man Inc. gang member will stand trial in the murder-for-hire case of a court witness.
A federal grand jury indicted 47-year-old Troy Lucas in the 2008 murder of Robert Long, for which an innocent man spent five years in prison.
“This investigation has resulted in several convictions and the exoneration of an innocent man who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in state prison,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.
Demetrius Smith was exonerated of the crime in 2013. He was serving life in prison. At the time of the murder, Smith lived near Traci Atkins Park in Southwest Baltimore where Robert Long was shot twice in the head.
In a swift turnaround, Jose Morales was convicted of hiring someone via cell phone to have Long killed.
Morales was a codefendant in a construction theft case. The case was pending in Baltimore Circuit Court when Morales learned that Long was cooperating with police.
The indictment charges that Morales solicited Lucas to kill Long in retaliation for his cooperation with police.
Lucas is accused of murder-for-hire conspiracy, use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire and use of a firearm during a crime of violence resulting in death. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
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