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A Baltimore man with a violent criminal history, which includes the alleged slaying of his teenage son, is now standing trial for the alleged brutal killing of his daughter, years after he injured her by throwing her through a glass door as an infant.
People surrounding Malik Samartaney have been turning up dead going back decades, the Baltimore Sun reported. The 68-year-old Marine veteran is currently on trial for the death of his daughter, Dominique Foster, 43, who was found dismembered and thrown in a dumpster.
"He left her body there like trash," Assistant State’s Attorney Elizabeth Stock told jurors Thursday, according to the news outlet.
Foster's mutilated body was discovered in May 2019 when a neighbor reported a suspicious package at a Baltimore dumpster. Authorities found a shopping cart with a black trash bag with blood. Foster, a mother of six, was inside bound with her hands, feet and head missing.
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She was identified by a family member only after investigators circulated images of her tattoos. Samartaney lived only 700 feet from the dumpster where she was found.
He was suspected of the killing by Foster's family because of his violent past. Around Christmas 1975, when she was 7-months-old, Foster was thrown by her father through a glass door. Samartaney, who was known then as Lawrence Banks, had been arguing with her mother before injuring the child.
She required nearly two dozen stitches to the head and he was charged with assault and intent to disfigure. While awaiting trial, authorities discovered the decomposed body of his wife, Vivian Banks, who was Foster's mother, in her closet. Her cause of death was not determined.
Samartaney was convicted of assaulting his daughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was released in 1988. In 1991, he went out drinking with friends and fatally shot one of them in the head and left the body along a road. He then drove to Baltimore and allegedly killed his 17-year-old son at his foster home.
The newspaper said the teen was beaten and Dominique Foster has been raped by her father. Authorities said Samartaney had become enraged with the children reported him to authorities for alleged child abuse.
After pleading guilty to his friend's murder and no contest to his son's killing, Samartaney, still known as Lawrence Banks at the time, received two 20-year prison sentences to be served concurrently. He was released after 11 years with credit for good behavior and changed his name to Malik Samartaney.
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He remarried and was eventually charged with assaulting his wife. He was found not guilty and separated from his wife. In 2006, he was living with a girlfriend and her grown daughter, who also had a baby. That year, the daughter and her child were fatally shot.
Sammartaney was never charged and the killings remain unsolved. During Thursday's proceedings, his violent past was presented to jurors. Maryland law bars prosecutors from presenting evidence of past crimes in an effort to ensure defendants are convicted solely on evidence admitted during trial.
Fox News has reached out to the Baltimore County Public Defender's office and the county State's Attorney's Office.
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