Lewis' family comes to his defense

ATLANTA (AP) -- While Ray Lewis remained in jail on murder charges, his friends and family maintained the NFL star did not stab two men to death. "No way, no way on this Earth that Ray would ... use

Sunday, February 6th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ATLANTA (AP) -- While Ray Lewis remained in jail on murder charges, his friends and family maintained the NFL star did not stab two men to death. "No way, no way on this Earth that Ray would ... use a knife to take somebody's life," Lewis' grandfather Gillis McKinney told ESPN on Sunday.
"We always told Ray that God gives life, and human beings shouldn't take life ... and Ray's that type of person."

Lewis is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Jacinth "Shorty" Baker, 21, and Richard Lollar, 24. The two were stabbed in a post-Super Bowl brawl during the early morning of Jan.31. The Baltimore Ravens linebacker, one of the NFL's top defensive players, is being held without bail. His bond hearing has been moved up to Feb. 14.

After insisting Lewis was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, his lawyers said this weekend they will not comment further until they have been able to review the case more thoroughly. "We're working 18 hour days and then we're still thinking like we missed something," lawyer Jana Harris told The Associated Press.

No other suspects have been named, but Atlanta police have confirmed they want to interview two men thought to have been with Lewis in a limousine seen speeding from the scene. A.J. Johnson and Kwame King are wanted for questioning, but are not necessarily suspects, Atlanta police spokesman John Quigley said.

Johnson is a former University of Maryland player who had a tryout with the Miami Dolphins; King grew up in Lewis' hometown of Lakeland, Fla. Few other details were forthcoming from Atlanta police, who were in Baltimore over the weekend interviewing possible witnesses. A marked police car was seen Saturday in the driveway of the limousine's driver Duane Fossett. His wife, Linda, said he would have no comment.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Lewis was arrested on the basis of Fossett's account. Baltimore police Sunday would not discuss their investigation. Previous reports have said two knives were found in the limo, and receipts for knives were found in Lewis' Atlanta hotel room.

Harris previously said the knives and receipts may belong to someone else. "This community feels like it's been hit in the gut," Lewis' high school football coach Earnest Joe told The (Baltimore) Sun. "I only hope we will have the opportunity to be together like that ... again. Lord, I pray that'll be so because Ray Lewis could never do what he's accused of," Lewis' high school principal, Clint Wright, told the newspaper.

Lewis also faces charges that he hit a woman at a Baltimore-area bar on Nov. 30. But Howard Merker, deputy state's attorney for Baltimore County, said the case will not go to trial if the charge cannot be substantiated and has postponed a hearing. "I was there and there ain't no way he touched that girl because the security -- they know Ray -- so they grabbed Ray when the fight broke out and pushed him off in the corner," Ravens cornerback Duane Starks, who played with Lewis at the University of Miami, told ESPN.

Former Miami teammate Marlin Barnes, who was beaten to death in 1996, was one of Lewis' closest friends. Lewis now wears a T-shirt bearing Barnes' image under his uniform every game. "He saw the pain that is caused the family and friends and it's just hard to believe he would do that to another family," Barnes' mother Charlie May Postell told the network.