Crime & Safety

Man Accused in Quadruple Murder Due in Court

Darrell Bellard allegedly shot two toddlers and two adults in a drug-related dispute.

A man accused of killing two toddlers, their mother and their maternal aunt over a drug debt is scheduled to be in court Wednesday for a motions hearing. 

According to a statement from the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office, State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks had initially filed a motion seeking the death penalty for 46-year-old Darrell Bellard. The Maryland State Legislature abolished the death penalty earlier this year, however. Bellard will now face life without parole if he is found guilty. 

The four victims - Dawn Yvette Brooks, 38; Mwasiti Sikyala, 41; Shakur Sylvester Sikyala, 4; and Shayla Shante Sikyala, 3 – were found dead in August of 2010. They had been living in the second floor of an apartment, over a detached garage in Lanham.

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At the time, Prince George’s County Police Chief Roberto Hylton said the shooting was the result of a drug sale dispute. “This was a drug relationship that went very bad,” he told Patch.

Police made two arrests the next day. Bellard, of Dickinson, Texas, and Tkeisha Nicole Gilmer, 18, of Texas City, Texas, were charged with first-degree murder.

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According to NBC4, the duo drove from Texas to Maryland to sell marijuana.

According to court records, Gilmer pleaded guilty in November 2011. Her sentencing is scheduled for January, 2014.


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