Lemuel Wallace

The new bathroom at the trailhead Parking Lot along Dead Run in Leakin Park was the location of the brutal execution of a blind mentally disabled man named Lemuel Wallace. The police were surprised when an insurance company seeking to verify information on a 1.4 million dollar life insurance policy taken out in Wallace's name called them for verification. It turns out that Kevin Pushia, a local christian pastor took out an insurance policy on Mr. Wallace afterwhich somebody killed Lemuel Wallace in the bathroom.   Kevin Pushia claimed he had hired another pastor at a cost of $50,000, James Omar Clea, to shoot Wallace in the back of the head.

The evidence against Pushia, who had worked as an operations manager for Arc of Baltimore, surfaced after police serving a search warrant found a notation in his planning calendar for Feb. 5, the day after Wallace was killed, that read, "L.W. project completed," prosecutors said. The money used to pay the alleged hit man came from the treasury of Pushia's East Baltimore church.

James Clea, 32 and his brother Kareem Jamal Clea, were arrested and charged with accessory to murder.  Both stood trial in August of 2011 for the murder and were found not guilty.   Kevin Pushia testified against them but gave contradicting testimony and lied on the stand while he told a long-winded tale of homosexuality, blackmail, insurance fraud, schizophrenia, foster children, disability, mental illness and murder-for-hire as well has how he had been given a vision from God and received a lucrative insurance pay-out due a questionable church fire. You can read about the trial from this Baltimore Sun article.  On October 18, 2011 Kevin Pushia received a sentence of life plus 45 years for the murder of Lemuel Wallace.