Witnesses ID'd UConn stabbing suspect

Rockville (WTNH) - The suspects accused in the death of UConn football star Jasper Howard went before a judge today. The state is relying on the testimony of witnesses.

John Lomax, 21, went before a judge wednesday charged with murder, aledgedly stabbing 20-year-old Jasper Howard, killing the the UConn football star on campus outside a school dance.

His attorney says Lomax didn't do it.

"They've got the wrong man," Deron Freeman, Lomax's attorney, said. "There are some facts and evidence that have come to my attention that leads me to believe they definitely ahve the wrong man."

In court Lomax didn't say anything. But he did talk to police before he was arrested.

"He was there on campus that night he told police. He has also cooperated, submitted himself to questioning. He voluntarily let them search his house and allowed them to have certain evidence that they were looking for," Freeman said.

Lomax, along with his co-worker and now co-defendant, Hakim Muhammad, 20, charged with conspiracy to commit assault, appeared in Rockville Superior court a day after he was arrested at work.

"Investigators have located a number of witnesses that identify this defendant as going to his co-defendant's car with his co-defendant. Mr. Lomax is in the middle of what started out as a very minor altercation arming themselves with weapons knives," Matthew Gedansky, state attorney, said.

Muhammad's attorney says witnesses didn't see his client doing anything wrong.

"There was one witness that saw my client with something that looked like a knife. Well I don't know, a pen looks like a knife," Gerald Klein, Muhammad's attorney, said.