By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
TRENTON – A 35-year-old Detroit man charged with lying to police during a murder investigation remained in custody last week after a probable cause hearing in 33rd District Court, and is scheduled for a preliminary examination of evidence this week.
Aaron Sydney Marshall was charged earlier this month with lying to a peace officer during a violent crime investigation. Marshall had been a person of interest in the homicide last month of 65-year-old George Hite, the city’s first murder in nearly a decade.
A cash bond of $30,000 was continued by 33rd District Court Judge Michael McNally, and Marshall remained in custody while investigators continue piecing together the events that led to Hite’s death.
Director of Police and Fire Services James Nardone said investigators believe there are others who either have information or may have been involved.
“We are looking for other people,” Nardone said.
Hite had been discovered on March 11 in the Westwood home that, for about a year, he’d been sharing with his 94-year-old, bedridden mother, who was believed to be home when Hite was strangled to death. The woman has since been moved to an undisclosed location.
Police and prosecutors said that Hite died from strangulation. He was remembered in Trenton and his native Lincoln Park as a longtime youth baseball supporter, and had umpired countless Little League games.
Nardone said Marshall and Hite knew one another. Marshall initially told investigators that he’d never been in Trenton, but cell phone records proved otherwise and resulted in Marshall’s April 14 arraignment on charges of lying to police.
A warrant seeking charges as a habitual offender were also filed and will be reviewed during a preliminary examination Tuesday.
Nardone asked that anyone with information contact Trenton police at 734-676-3737.
(James Mitchell can be reached at [email protected].)