Darrel Bellard (left) and Tkeisha Gilmer (right) (WUSA9 photo)
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UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (WUSA) - A Maryland Judge denied bail Monday for two people suspected of killing two children and two women in Lanham, Md., last Friday.
9News Now reporter Armando Trull said 43-year-old Darrel Bellard and 18-year-old Tkeisha Gilmer will have a public defender appointed. The judge also informed them that each count of murder carries the possibility of the death sentence.
Prince George's County police said the two suspects, described by sources as marijuana couriers from Texas, got into a dispute over drug debts and that led to the deaths.
Investigators said Bellard shot the victims, execution-style, inside their garbage-strewn Lanham apartment while Gilmer stood guard by the smashed front door and kept victims from fleeing.
Police identified the victims as Shayla Shante Sikyala 3, Shakur Sylvester Sikyala 4, their mother Dawn Brooks 38 and the children's paternal aunt Mwasiti Sikyala, 41.
Police were initially called to the scene for the report of an assault. The conditions inside the victims' home -- an apartment above a detached garage on 3rd Street in Lanham -- were by all counts deplorable.
Police chief Roberto Hylton described the home as similar to a "landfill", and said no human being should have to live like that. Police said there was no running water or toilet facilities where the victims had been living.
