Former Ranger To Be Tried Again For Murder

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) -- A former Army Ranger accused of killing his roommate who served with him in Afghanistan is going on trial for a second time.

Opening statements are scheduled for Thursday in the retrial of Gary Smith. He's accused in the shooting death of Michael McQueen II in September 2006 in the apartment they shared in Gaithersburg.

Smith was convicted in 2008 of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

But Maryland's highest court threw out Smith's conviction, ruling that the judge should have allowed the defense to present evidence of McQueen's purported suicidal depression. Defense lawyers suggested that McQueen committed suicide and that a despondent Smith tried to blame the death on an intruder.

McQueen's late father, Mike McQueen, was New Orleans bureau chief for The Associated Press.

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