By April Lehmbeck
C & G Staff Writer

EASTPOINTE – Matthew Landry’s family members smiled when testimony centered on his friendly disposition and cried when they listened to a witness talk about how police followed the wrong green car after losing sight of Landry’s vehicle following the carjacking that would end in his death.

38th District Court Judge Carl Gerds heard testimony for the preliminary hearing from multiple witnesses in the case against suspects Ihab Maslamani and Robert Taylor Nov. 12, including from Quiznos employees who work at the restaurant where Landry was kidnapped, the witness that watched it all unfold and Landry’s mother.

Maslamani, 17, and Taylor, 16, each face six felony charges, including homicide, kidnapping and carjacking, and are looking at the possibility of life behind bars.

Some of the most powerful testimony came from witness Lawrence Watta, 61, who saw Landry get carjacked from the parking lot of the Quiznos at 10 Mile and Gratiot. His time on the stand included the playing of a frantic 911 call in which Watta tried to help police find the suspects before they allegedly escaped with Landry.

“They’re hitting him now. They’re hitting him in the face. Hurry, hurry,” Watta said during the 911 call, which the prosecutor, Bill Cataldo, had played in court.

Landry, a 21-year-old Chesterfield Township resident, was taken from Quiznos Aug. 9 and his body was found on Aug. 13 in an abandoned Detroit house.

Watta saw something suspicious on the corner that day and said he tried to help. He testified that he saw Taylor standing outside looking like he might have a weapon and feared he was about to rob the restaurant.

He pulled into the parking lot and tried to enter through a locked alternate door to warn the restaurant employees. Planning to try the main door, he locked eyes with the suspicious man — who he identified in court as Taylor — and got scared because he had his wife and child in the car. He drove around and parked across the street to call police.

Watta said he then watched a man — who he identified as Maslamani — with Landry trying to put the 21-year-old in the trunk, but eventually putting him in the car instead. At that point, he said, Maslamani and Taylor got in and drove off. Watta followed, but kept his distance out of fear that the suspects would attack him and his family.

“The guy with the baseball cap hit him in the face,” Watta testified about Maslamani attacking Landry while in the vehicle. “The guy flew back pretty hard and he just disappeared.”

He ended up losing Landry’s green-colored car on Gratiot, and police ended up following a different green car.

Family in the front row of the court cried and consoled each other during this testimony.

While Watta said there were some things he said during the heat of the moment in that 911 call that he wouldn’t say now, the desperation comes through in his recorded voice.

“You’re telling me you’re at Nine Mile and Gratiot and you can’t get here that quick?” he said during the call.

Watta testified that he called police after seeing Maslamani’s face on the news for a bank robbery in Harrison Township the day after the carjacking in Eastpointe.

“I turned to my wife and said, ‘Oh my God, there’s that guy,” Watta said. 

Other difficult testimony came when Landry’s mother, Doreen, took the stand.

She testified about the last time she saw her son alive, the final time she heard his voice and the agonizing hours in between first learning that her son was missing and finding out police had discovered his body.

The last time Doreen Landry saw her son was when he drove off to visit his girlfriend in Roseville.

She heard from him one other time after that.

“He was very concerned about Francesca (his girlfriend),” Doreen testified, saying that he wanted advice on how to help her. “She had been running a fever and not feeling well.”

She became even more concerned after she discovered three withdrawals out of Detroit on his debit card for $102 each. She said her son didn’t usually make cash withdrawals, but she still held onto hope that maybe he had lent a friend money because he was the type of person who would give when his friends were in need.       

She told the court about how the family desperately went from one police department to another looking for help, as well as up to news crews, and also printed fliers to help find their son.

Then, they got a visit from the Chesterfield police after her son’s body was discovered days later.

“Chesterfield (police) came to the door,” she said. “He didn’t have to say anything. I knew it.”

The defense — led by attorneys Joseph Kosmala and Louis Zaidan — questioned Landry’s mental status, questioning his mother about his previous diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Doreen Landry explained that her son got treatment on his own, had remained on medication and was in therapy. He wasn’t suicidal, she answered, when defense questioned her.

Two employees of Quiznos, the last place Landry was seen alive, also took the stand.

They testified that the suspects came in, one after another, to request a cup of water. One employee testified that she saw the suspects interacting outside. 

Then, not long after, Landry came in to get a sandwich, chatting and joking with the staff.

One of the staff members, Jessica Mckinney, is a Roseville High School graduate, as was Landry.

Mckinney spoke to both suspects that day.

“We were talking about the weather,” she remembered of her brief conversation with Maslamani. “It was really muggy out.

“He grabbed his ice water and left the store,” she said.

Then, she said, Taylor came in. She remembers him asking if he could refill the cup she had given to Maslamani.

“He pushed a juice button and he told me there was Kool-Aid coming out of it, and I showed him where the water button was.”

He left and after that brief moment of time, Maslamani and Taylor allegedly carjacked Landry and killed him.

The defense attorneys attempted to question witness recollection and identification of the suspects.

Maslamani also faces charges in the Harrison Township bank robbery on Aug. 10 and an attempted carjacking in Roseville on Aug. 11, which is when he was arrested.

Testimony in the Eastpointe murder case will continue on Nov. 19.

You can reach Staff Writer April Lehmbeck at alehmbeck@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1043.