DNA, jail calls, financial records: Maryland prosecutors make case in 2010 murder of AU professor
When Jorge Rueda Landeros goes on trial for killing American University professor Sue Ann Marcum, it will be almost 15 years after Montgomery County prosecutors say he beat and asphyxiated her at her home in Bethesda, Maryland.
Rueda Landeros is charged with first-degree murder in Marcum’s October 2010 death. He spent 12 years on the FBI’s “Most Wanted List” before he was arrested in Guadalajara, Mexico, in December 2022 and extradited to the United States.
Dressed in a green short-sleeved jail shirt over a long-sleeved sweatshirt, Rueda Landeros sat quietly between his public defenders during a Friday status hearing in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
After being indicted in August 2023, Rueda Landeros has been scheduled to go on trial in May of this year. However, on Friday, Rueda Landeros’s defense team requested — and was granted — a trial postponement, as one of his attorneys is leaving the public defender’s office.
Judge Rachel McGuckian set jury selection for Jan. 21, 2025, for what both sides expect will be a five-day jury trial.
Court documents shed light on prosecution’s case against Rueda Landeros
Shortly after his extradition, prosecutors and police provided initial details of what led them to Rueda Landeros — and why it took 12 years to make an arrest.
According to a July 2023 news conference, police said Rueda Landeros’s DNA matched DNA recovered from items in Marcum’s house, including the weapon police believe was used to bludgeon her and scrapings from under her fingernails.
Recent filings provide a more specific outline of the evidence Montgomery County prosecutors plan to present and the expert witnesses who could testify.
During the discovery process, prosecutors provided the defense with photos, audio and video interviews, jail call recordings, video surveillance and interactive brokerage reports.
Prosecutors named a forensic scientist with the county police department to testify about both Marcum’s and Rueda Landeros’s DNA being found on shot glasses, as well as DNA found under Marcum’s fingernails.
According to charging documents in the case, the scene of Marcum’s killing initially bore signs of a robbery. A rear window appeared to have been pried open, and the house was partially ransacked. However, several expensive items were left behind and investigators said evidence of a struggle indicated Marcum possibly knew her attacker.
Suspicion eventually landed on Rueda Landeros, a yoga instructor and Spanish teacher who developed a personal and financial relationship with Marcum sometime in the mid-2000s. Police have not detailed exactly how the two knew each other.
According to police, Rueda Landeros was the sole beneficiary of a $500,000 life insurance policy on Marcum, and the two also shared a joint investment fund.
In addition, a 1099 form in Marcum’s name from 2008 listed proceeds of over $100 million to the fund, which investigators believed to be “very unusual” given her occupation as a university professor, according to the charging documents.
Police declined to say during the 2023 news conference whether the fund actually had $100 million in it or if the tax form was bogus.
The new expert witness notification specifies a forensic accountant who reviewed the financial records of Marcum and Rueda Landeros and drafted a report on his conclusions.
A fingerprint analyst is set to testify about latent prints found in Marcum’s home on Massachusetts Avenue, located between Goldsboro Road and Westmoreland Circle, on the border with D.C.
Rueda Landeros has maintained his innocence.
“Mr. Rueda Landeros is innocent, has asserted his innocence before, and continues to today. We look forward to a trial in a courtroom in this case,” Michael Beach, the Montgomery County district public defender, said in an email to WTOP shortly after Rueda Landeros was extradited.
WTOP’s Jack Moore contributed to this report.