Maryland Man Charged in Connection With Triple Homicide

A Maryland man has been charged in connection with a 2008 triple homicide in Springfield.

Delante T. Cook, 34, a Prince George's County resident, was charged by a grand jury Wednesday with two counts of interfering interstate commerce through threats or violence. According to the indictment, Cook and others attempted to rob marijuana dealers living in Annandale.

On November 19, 2008, Cook and his accomplices allegedly began the robbery at a home on the 5500 block of Moultrie Road, dressed in clothes with law enforcement insignia. Cook had allegedly surveilled the home for two days before the robbery.

Cook or one of his accomplices allegedly stabbed three men to death during the robbery:  two brothers, Terence Strope, 38, and Ryan Strope, 26; and another man, Andres Yelicie, 26. The Strope brothers were marijuana dealers, according to the indictment.

After killing the men, the indictment charges, Cook and his accomplices took a cell phone and two laptops.

Jelani Slay, an alleged accomplice of Cook's mentioned in the indictment, was shot and killed in 2009 by a Metropolitan Police Department officer in Washington after Slay attempted to rob him.

The murders stunned the Springfield neighborhood where they occurred, according to a Washington Examiner article written at the time. The shock of the murder was made worse by the fact that one of the stabbed men ran out of the house crying for help, before eventually dying.

Neighbors described the Strope brothers as friendly, and said the three men rented the house together.

At the time, police described the deaths as the results of a fight.

Although it may seem strange to charge Cook with affecting interstate commerce by robbing people engaged in an illegal activity, in 2003, the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that such robberies can be prosecuted by the federal government because "drug dealing is an inherently economic activity that Congress can regulate."