Missing Federal Attorney Found Slain

A federal prosecutor trying the case of a Baltimore rapper accused of heroin trafficking was found fatally stabbed in a dry riverbed in Pennsylvania on Thursday, hours before he was scheduled to appear in court, law enforcement officials said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Jonathan P. Luna, 38, had been prosecuting the case of rapper Deon Lionnel Smith, 32, and his former associate Walter Oriley Poindexter, 28. The two were accused of using their Stash House Records studio to operate a violent drug ring and distribute heroin.

Day four of the trial was to begin Thursday morning, but Luna -- who was married and had two children -- did not show up as scheduled. According to law enforcement sources, he had arrived at his home in a Baltimore suburb about 8 p.m. Wednesday, but received a phone call shortly afterward and left about midnight.

His wife apparently reported him missing overnight. Luna’s colleagues began asking questions Thursday morning when he did not arrive in court, and the FBI started a search.

A body later identified as Luna’s was found by police around daybreak, face-down behind a well-drilling company in Lancaster County -- about 70 miles from Baltimore near a Pennsylvania Turnpike exit. Early reports indicated he was both stabbed and shot, but a law enforcement official said there were no gunshot wounds and the Pennsylvania State Police said later in a news release that he died as a result of stab wounds.

Luna’s car was found near the body.

“It looks like he was taken there and dumped,” said the official, who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing investigation.

A pall fell over the Justice Department on Thursday as officials promised to solve the killing.

“Let there be no doubt that everyone in law enforcement -- local police, state police, the United States Marshals Service, [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives], FBI -- are united,” said U.S. Atty. Thomas M. DiBiagio in Baltimore. “We will find out who did this, and we are dedicated to bringing the person responsible for this tragedy to justice.”

In a statement, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said “all appropriate resources will be dedicated to investigating this matter.”

During the trial, which had started Monday, Smith was accused of using the record business as a cover for a highly organized drug ring. Smith recorded under the stage name Papi Jenkinz, but his studio closed after his arrest this year.

He once described himself in an interview with the hip-hop magazine Don Diva as an aspiring artist with plans to use music as a path to legitimate wealth.

Defense attorney Kenneth Ravenell said Smith had tried to find a lawful career in music but hadn’t severed past criminal ties. In his opening statement, Ravenell urged the jury to separate violent tales they might have heard about the rap industry from the case before them.

“I suspect that what a lot of you know about rap music is what you hear on the radio or see on the TV -- and a lot of that’s not good,” Ravenell said. “But Mr. Smith isn’t on trial for being part of the rap industry.”

Luna, however, described Smith as a supplier for a sophisticated drug ring that was run by Poindexter and sold heroin in northwest Baltimore neighborhoods under the street name 9-1-1.

A key government witness, Warren Grace, who said he sold drugs for the group, testified this week that “once [users] hit it, they were going to need 9-1-1 -- they were going to have to call an ambulance.”

The trial was interrupted Wednesday as Luna and defense attorneys hammered out a plea bargain on the drug charges, said U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr., who presided over the case.

Both men were to enter pleas Thursday. Smith was to plead guilty to distribution of heroin and possession of a weapon for the purposes of drug trafficking, charges that carry a maximum of 25 years in prison. Poindexter was to plead guilty to distribution of heroin to a government witness, which carries a 60-year maximum term.

Luna was scheduled to be present.

Authorities did not say whether Smith and Poindexter were considered suspects; both were behind bars at the time. Authorities have alleged that Poindexter killed a man in January 2001 named Alvin “L” Jones, whom he believed had burglarized one of the drug ring’s stash houses.

Luna grew up in New York and graduated from Fordham University before attending the University of North Carolina law school.

He served as a former staff attorney with the Federal Trade Commission’s general counsel office from 1994 until 1997 before becoming an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y. He joined the U.S. attorney’s office in Baltimore in 1999.

Late last year, Luna won convictions in a string of violent Baltimore County bank robberies in a trial that produced its own mystery: At the end of the trial, authorities discovered that more than $36,000 in cash had gone missing somewhere between the courtroom and government storage used to hold sensitive evidence during trials. That case was never solved.