Opening arguments begin in Cagal trial

Bethesda woman killed for money, deputy state’s attorney tells jurors

Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Gatewood

One was a backpack toting Montgomery College student named Emily Cagal. The other, a scantily clad exotic dancer known to friends and clients sometimes as ‘‘Jordan,” sometimes as ‘‘Ivy.”

Both Deputy States Attorney John McCarthy and defense attorney Steven D. Kupferberg acknowledged that Cagal also made a lot of money selling drugs. McCarthy told jurors during opening arguments Tuesday that Antoine L. Gatewood, 33, Cagal’s friend, occasional security guard and former boyfriend, killed her for that money.

Gatewood, who faces charges of first-degree murder, burglary and robbery charges, knew Cagal kept large amounts of cash in her apartment that she could not deposit in a bank because it came from selling drugs, McCarthy told the jury in his opening statement Tuesday morning.

‘‘He knew that,” McCarthy said, ‘‘and it is that cash, that money, that is the incentive and the fuel for this murder.”

The trial before Judge D. William Donohue is scheduled for eight days in Montgomery County Circuit Court. Gatewood could face the death penalty if convicted. McCarthy said he intends to call 30 witnesses in the case and show jurors hundreds of photographs, including surveillance videos showing Gatewood carrying a wicker basket containing Cagal’s body out of her apartment before loading it into her black SUV.

McCarthy told jurors during opening arguments that Cagal’s apartment building was equipped with numerous video surveillance cameras, showing a few of the stills during his opening statement. The first was at 5:53 p.m. on March 2, showing two people McCarthy described as Gatewood and Cagal walking into the apartment building.

‘‘That is Emily, that is Antoine,” McCarthy said. ‘‘She is never seen again.”

He then showed jurors several images of Gatewood leaving the apartment and then returning with his roommate, Dion Desir, 25, of Largo. The stills showed two men returning to Cagal’s Grosvenor Place apartment building driving her SUV, parking in her parking space, and then leaving the apartment a short time later carting out several items.

Following opening statements, McCarthy opened his case with witness Derek Goldstein, a friend of Cagal’s who first reported her missing to police.

Police believe Cagal was killed in her apartment sometime on March 2. She was reported missing after Goldstein, 25, went to her apartment to check on her.

Goldstein testified on Tuesday that he had helped Cagal install several pieces of electronic equipment, but found most of the equipment gone when he went to her apartment. He also found what appeared to be a large bloodstain on the carpet in Cagal’s bedroom, which police later found had seeped through the carpeting and into the wood floor below, McCarthy said earlier in his opening statement.

McCarthy said Desir would testify during the trial that Gatewood came home to their apartment the night of the killing and told Desir that he had killed Cagal by beating her repeatedly.

Desir pleaded guilty on July 26 to accessory after the fact and faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 29. McCarthy said Desir would describe to the jury how he helped Gatewood clean up the crime scene and dispose of Cagal’s body.

McCarthy said Desir led police on March 15 to a shallow grave in a wooded area in the 4500 block of Mellwood Road in Upper Marlboro, where they found Cagal’s body wrapped in plastic and buried beneath four to six inches of dirt.

In his opening statement, Gatewood’s attorney asked jurors to question Desir’s motivation for testifying against him, referring to a plea agreement with the state’s attorney.

‘‘Why would he lay it all on Mr. Gatewood?” Kupferberg said. ‘‘Despite the fact that he entered his plea many, many months ago, he has yet to be sentenced. Why?”

Kupferberg also read passages of Cagal’s journal describing her loving relationship with Gatewood. At times during Kupferberg’s reading, Gatewood, dressed in a brown suit and tie, covered his face and appeared to weep.

Other testimony in the trial is expected from friends of Gatewood’s who will tell jurors how they saw him throwing around large amounts of cash in the days following the killing, McCarthy said.

‘‘This money was Emily’s money,” McCarthy said. ‘‘This money was blood money.”