36 Times

Jonathan Luna was an assistant U.S. Attorney with a wife and two kids. All of whom lived in the Baltimore, Maryland area. Mr. Luna was a renowned prosecutor responsible for putting drug dealers, robbers, and child molesters behind bars. But in an ironic twist of fate, Luna would go from prosecutor to victim when his body was found face down in a Pennsylvania creek on December 3, 2003.

The scene was eerie along the Creekside with Mr. Luna’s car running idly as he lay face down in bubbling water. Investigators would slowly trickle onto the scene and examine the car. A pool of blood is found soaked into the back seats along with cash scattered about the car. Blood is also found on the front fender, the driver’s seat, and the driver’s side door. As for the corpse, Luna’s body is littered with 36 stab wounds of various depths. The most severe being the one to his carotid artery. Yet, despite the visible carnage, Luna’s cause of death is determined to be drowning. However, with further investigation, some interesting information comes to light.

On the night of his murder, Jonathan Luna was hard at work drawing up a plea bargain. He was prosecuting two men, rapper Deon Lionell Smith and his partner Walter Oriley Poindexter, for distributing heroine, running a violent heroin ring, and keeping stashes of the drug in their recording studio. At about 6:oo pm. Luna left his office only to return later in the evening. From that point forward dozens of reported ‘Luna sightings’ took place. However, investigators would find large discrepancies in these reports leading to many different timelines. As a result, only one definitive time exists aside from 6:00 pm; 5:30 am, December 4th , 2003. The time Luna’s body was discovered.

With confusion mounting amongst investigators (all of whom were trying to make sense of Luna’s last hours), Deon and Walter became the prime suspects. However, both men were safely behind bars when the murder occurred, and their attorney adamantly remarked, “Luna was instrumental in negotiating the deal,” a deal both criminals wanted desperately. Killing Luna for either of them would have ruined their entire case. Lacking a motive and with a solid alibi, Deon and Walter would remain out of the investigation from that point on.

Now without suspects, the investigation struggled until new details surfaced that made Luna’s murder even more of a mystery. A toll ticket stained with blood was turned in to investigators. At first, the piece of evidence seemed helpful, but investigators recalled Luna’s car having an E-Z Pass making his need for a toll ticket unnecessary. Unfortunately, no leads were picked up from this stray piece of evidence and the case seemed to run cold once more. However, shortly after the toll ticket came to a dead end, Luna’s other travels fell under scrutiny. The attorney had made numerous trips to Pennsylvania in relatively short succession. When investigators sought reasons as to why, Luna’s father stated the travels were work related. Yet, there wasn’t a single case of his in the Pennsylvania area. The only explanation for his travels resided in a single individual behind bars. A key witness for the drug case of Deon and Walter. The theory seemed shaky until Colleagues of Luna’s claimed he was doing a series of interviews, and with that this peculiarity of the case was left alone. Yet, as one oddity vanished a new one appeared.

As other leads underwent investigation, Luna’s financial records were called into question. Upon review, investigators discovered up to $25,000 in credit card debt. On top of this, there were 16 credit cards registered in his name and most of them had been kept secret from his wife. With speculation mounting as to whether or not this debt had anything to do with Luna’s murder, further investigations were carried out in the work-place. It was there that investigators learned Luna’s current boss, who’d recently replaced a dear friend of his, held a strong disliking for the attorney. One of Luna’s colleagues, Andrew White a former prosecutor, stated “He and Thomas DiBiagio didn’t see eye to eye. If you get on the wrong foot with Thomas it’s difficult to get back in good standing.” Because of this, some of Luna’s friends believe he acted irrationally due to a fear of being fired. Oddly enough, Luna’s former boss remains silent on the case refusing to answer any and all questions.

To make matters worse, none of the collected evidence would provide stability to the case. It, like the rest of the acquired information, was peppered with contradictions. Federally, Luna’s death was chalked up as a suicide due to a handful of shallow stab wounds. These were identified as ‘hesitation wounds’ common in many suicide victims. Yet, within the state, Luna’s death was deemed a homicide. Local coroners claimed that Luna had defensive wounds while the FBI denied this. Yet, an anonymous FBI agent concurred with the coroners stating, “There were indeed defensive wounds.” Furthermore, other marks on Luna’s body indicated that his death wasn’t a suicide. Nail marks were discovered on his wrists and bruises were found on his testicles along with blunt trauma to the right side of his head. Yet, the FBI upheld their theory of suicide claiming that even those wounds could be self-inflicted. But even more peculiar was the discovery of a second person’s blood in the car. While no DNA results were ever released from the FBI, an anonymous investigator backed the claim of a second person’s blood being found in the car while adding that there was also a partial fingerprint. A fingerprint which was never followed up on. Then, shortly after this revelation, the murder weapon was found.

During the initial examination of Luna’s body, weapons experts concluded that the instrument used to kill Luna was likely a pen knife or swiss army knife. However, the murder weapon was found in a field adjoining the crime scene. Locals would go on to question how such a key piece of evidence was missed despite the thorough search of investigators in that very field. And even more peculiar was the lack of Luna’s blood and fingerprints on the knife. Or, a lack of blood and fingerprints in general. While the weapon itself could have been cleaned, the surrounding crime scene indicated a lack of organization if Luna’s death were indeed a homicide. But the knife’s location also brings the case of suicide under heavy fire. Luna wouldn’t have had time to clean his suicide weapon before bleeding out, and it certainly wouldn’t have ended up so far away from his body if he had cleaned it. In fact, the blade would have fallen not too far from where he collapsed along the creek edge.

Despite this, and despite the other conflicting details, Federal investigators still declared Luna’s death a suicide. The case now remains administratively closed, but if you ask those of the community, or Luna’s friends, you’ll find they have a very different take on the case’s conclusion. Wayne Ross, one of the case’s forensic pathologists remarks, “I can’t talk about it (the case), because it’s a homicide from my perspective. In my mind, this case will one day be prosecuted.” To this day, Luna’s death is written as a cause of his own self inflicted stab wounds, and the intake of creek water. But even Luna’s court house rival, Ravenell who defended the jailed drug dealers, comments, “It’s a heck of a long way to go to take your own life.”

36 stab wounds too long.