The relationship between Jorge Rueda Landeros and American University Professor Sue Ann Marcum was one-sided, Deputy State’s Attorney Ryan Wechsler said in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Tuesday.
Marcum met Rueda Landeros — who is now on trial for her murder — in 2005 in a Spanish class he taught.
Marcum not only gave Rueda Landeros her friendship, and sometimes a place to live, but she also bankrolled a day-trading business venture, Wechsler said during opening arguments.
Marcum, an accounting professor, gave the defendant $250,000. The two shared an investment account.
“The defendant put no money in this venture,” Wechsler said. “He put up no assets for this plan. Sue Marcum, on the other hand, mortgaged her home. … Sue took money out of retirement,” Wechsler told the jury.
Rueda Landeros “preyed upon,” “manipulated” and took advantage of Macum’s generosity until the money ran dry in 2009, Weschler said.
“When Jorge Landeros met Sue Marcum, he found his mark.”
Rueda Landeros, 55, wore a dark jacket, white dress shirt and tie. He sat stoically by his attorneys during opening remarks.
If convicted of first-degree murder, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison with parole. The trial is scheduled to last until Oct. 29.
The case against Rueda Landeros
Montgomery County Police found Marcum’s body in her Bethesda home on Oct. 25, 2010. The 52-year-old had been beaten and asphyxiated.
Wechsler told the jury Rueda Landeros went to Marcum’s home the day before her body was discovered.
“They talked. They had drinks. They fought,” Wechsler said. “Maybe they fought because the defendant wanted more money out of Sue, money that she did not have,” the prosecutor said.
Rueda Landeros hit Marcum in the head with a tequila bottle before she was strangled in her basement. Her slippers remained on the stairs leading to the basement, Wechsler said.
Rueda Landeros then staged the home to make it look like a burglary, including ransacking Marcum’s room, but he inadvertently left clues that pointed to something else, Wechsler said.
A screen from a kitchen window was pushed outside of the window, as were items on a windowsill in the kitchen. Had someone broken in, the screen and those items would have been pushed inside the home, Wechsler said. A diamond necklace Marcum wore was not stolen, Wechsler added.
DNA found on the tequila bottle matched that of Rueda Landeros, and his DNA was also found under her fingernails, Wechsler said.
“That single-source male contributor was Jorge Landeros,” she said. “That scene did not show a burglary, it showed a coverup.”
The defense
While prosecutors said Rueda Landeros had a $500,000 life insurance policy in case of Marcum’s death, which they cited as a possible motive, his defense attorneys said Marcum had the same life insurance policy in case of Rueda Landeros’ death.
Defense attorney Meghan Brennan described them as “reciprocal policies for the purposes of creating a business venture.”
Rueda Landeros never collected the life insurance money following Marcum’s death, she said.
“This is a case of a burglary gone wrong,” Brennan said. “This is a story about a botched burglary which led to the death of Ms. Marcum, which ultimately upended this innocent man’s life.”
Brennan said Marcum’s SUV was found stolen in Washington following her death.
A teenager has given conflicting accounts of how he got Marcum’s SUV, Brennan said. She added that things were stolen from the home, including a flat-screen television, a cellphone, a gaming console and Marcum’s gold Jeep Cherokee.
Brennan also said a screen from the window was cut.
Brennan said the teenager’s DNA was all over Marcum’s SUV and not inside the home because burglars wear gloves. She also said it makes sense that Rueda Landeros is linked forensically to Marcum’s home.
“Of course Mr. Landeros’ DNA was in that home,” she said. “They’ve been friends since 2005.”
The focus of the investigation changed, Brennan said, when police learned Rueda Landeros had a life insurance policy in case Marcum died. She called it an “aha moment” that put police on the wrong track.
In late 2022, the FBI’s Baltimore field office received a tip that Rueda Landeros was likely living in Guadalajara and working as a yoga instructor under the alias Leon Ferrara, police said.
Months after Marcum’s death, Rueda Landeros was regularly crossing the border between Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, police said. He was extradited back to the U.S. from Mexico in 2023.
Brother on the stand
Alan Marcum, Sue Marcum’s older brother by 15 months, took the witness stand on Tuesday. He said he was the executor of her estate following her death, and that his children became the beneficiary of the $500,000 life insurance.
Under oath, he said his sister did not file taxes for some years, which could have included the years preceding her death. Alan Marcum said he never met Rueda Landeros and was unaware he and his sister had taken trips together, including to Buenos Aires.
Marcum said he has never known his sister to be in a romantic relationship.
He also described a picture shown to the jury of Marcum, as an adult, smiling on a tire swing.
“It shows the way she lived her life,” he said. “She loved life.”
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