Murder charge dropped in Latino’s beating death

Defense says prosecutors lacked evidence to pursue case in February assault

A witness to Miranda-Fuentes death then identified Thompson in a photo array, according to police charging documents.

Montgomery County State’s Attorney John J. McCarthy had until May 23 to take the case to Circuit Court, either by a grand jury indictment or by filing its own charges.

State’s Attorney spokesman Seth Zucker confirmed Thursday that the charge was dropped. He could not say if the State’s Attorney Office sought an indictment on the murder charge.

Zucker stressed that the investigation of Miranda-Fuentes’ death will continue and would not rule out the possibility of future charges against Thompson.

‘‘I think what they‘re afraid of is that they don’t have enough evidence to proceed at this point and that they could get stuck on a speedy trial claim,” said Gwyn Hoerauf, Thompson’s attorney.

Miranda-Fuentes died Feb. 17 in the parking lot of the Gaither House Apartments across from Gaithersburg High School after he and a friend were attacked by three men wielding pipes and a bat, according to police.

The brutal killing sparked fears in the Latino community. The fears were further inflamed when police charging documents from the March 8 burglary arrest claimed that Thompson had said he was targeting Latinos because ‘‘They’re taking all the jobs.”

The allegation of racial targeting was an outrage to Thompson’s family in Bethesda, who claimed that he was being pinned with the crime because of his previous run-ins with police.

Hoerauf had gathered witness testimony that he was elsewhere at the time of Miranda-Fuentes’ death.

‘‘I’m sure that the family is relieved because they were pretty adamant that he was not involved,” Hoerauf said.

Thompson is being held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds on the charges of burglary, resisting arrest and destruction of property from the March 8 arrest.