FEDERAL PROSECUTOR FOUND DEAD WITH STAB WOUNDS

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- A federal prosecutor in Baltimore was found dead with
multiple stab wounds on Thursday in a creek in a rural area of
Pennsylvania, hours before he was scheduled to appear in court in the case
of a violent drug ring.

The prosecutor, Jonathan P. Luna, was stabbed repeatedly, and an autopsy
showed signs of freshwater drowning, Dr. Barry Walp, the coroner for
Lancaster County in eastern Pennsylvania, said in an interview.

The body was discovered about 5:30 a.m. near a rural highway in Lancaster
County, the coroner said. Mr. Luna, 38, was dressed in a business suit but
had no identification on him. It was not until several hours later -- after
the prosecutor failed to show up in a Baltimore courtroom, some 50 miles
away -- that the authorities established his identity, Dr. Walp said.

Within hours of the discovery, investigators interviewed one of the
admitted drug dealers whom Mr. Luna was prosecuting in Baltimore, and
officials said they were investigating the possibility that the trial was
connected to his death. But they cautioned that no motive had been
established and that other theories were being explored.

News of Mr. Luna's death jolted federal prosecutors and law enforcement
officials around the country, and Attorney General John Ashcroft called it
"a tragic death."

A somber Thomas M. DiBiagio, the United States attorney in Baltimore, said:
"We will find out who did this and we are dedicated to bringing the persons
responsible for this tragedy to justice."

Mr. Luna, who was married with two young children and lived in Elkridge,
outside of Baltimore, was considered a bright, energetic prosecutor. He was
assigned to several important cases involving drug trafficking, arson and
other crimes, colleagues said. A graduate of the University of North
Carolina law school, he worked as a local prosecutor in Brooklyn before
joining the Justice Department four years ago as an assistant United States
attorney, officials said.

A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said
investigators considered the timing of the murder to be suspicious because
it came in the midst of a case that Mr. Luna was working on involving
allegations of drug trafficking and violence. Mr. Luna was the lead
prosecutor in the federal case against Deon Smith, a rap artist in
Baltimore, and Walter O. Poindexter, a business associate, who were accused
of using a Baltimore recording studio to traffic in heroin.

Investigators are pursuing the possibility that Mr. Luna's killing was
connected to the drug case. But the law enforcement official cautioned that
"we're not presuming anything."

The official continued: "We don't know yet. It could be him being in the
wrong place at the wrong time. We're not ruling anything out yet."

Kenneth W. Ravenell, the defense lawyer for Mr. Smith in the drug case,
said his client had nothing to do with the killing and was cooperating in
the investigation. His co-defendant, Mr. Poindexter, was interviewed by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday, and Mr. Smith expects to speak
with investigators Friday, the defense lawyer said.

Mr. Ravenell said his client was happy with the outcome of the drug case
because Mr. Luna and the defense lawyers had agreed to a plea bargain late
Wednesday after three days of trial. For both men, the deal dropped
conspiracy counts, which carry a sentence of 25 years to life, and Mr.
Smith was allowed to plead guilty to drug distribution and use of a
firearm, with a potential sentence of 8 to 10 years, the lawyers said.

Mr. Smith "was about as ecstatic as you can be when you're going off to
prison on a plea," Mr. Ravenell said.

"He was very happy and very relieved to get the deal that he wanted," he said.

"It would be silly of these men to have been involved in this murder
because they got what they wanted from their plea," Mr. Ravenell continued.
"I would be more than shocked if they were involved."

With a jury still impaneled Thursday morning, lawyers were to appear in
court at 9:30 a.m. to enter the plea agreement into the record, but Mr.
Luna did not show up. "He was very punctual so it certainly was unusual to
see him not there at the appointed hour," said Mr. Ravenell, adding that he
considered himself a friend and mentor to the young prosecutor.

Federal agents at the courthouse were unable to find him, and the F.B.I.
began investigating his disappearance in the morning even as lawyers in the
case entered pleas in his absence. By the time the pleas were completed,
around 11:30 a.m., and the prosecutor had still not arrived, "people were
more frantic," the defense lawyer said.

Within about four hours, officials had linked the discovery of the body in
Pennsylvania to the prosecutor's disappearance. Details of the
investigation were tightly held, and the State Police in Pennsylvania took
the unusual step of refusing to release any information on the crime,
referring all questions to the federal Justice Department.

Killings of federal prosecutors are regarded as rare. The last one,
officials said, occurred two years ago ago when Thomas C. Wales, an
assistant United States attorney in Seattle, was shot to death in his home.

A federal prosecutor who handles drug cases said that trafficking cases in
particular carry the potential for violence against government officials
and that prosecutors know to follow a code of conduct for their safety. The
chief rule, said the prosecutor, is never to draw the defendant into a
personal confrontation.

"This isn't supposed to happen," said the prosecutor, who spoke on
condition of anonymity. "If you're fair and don't personalize it, you're
not supposed to get hit."

In addition to drug cases, Mr. Luna had prosecuted in Baltimore a man who
videotaped a child sleeping in her home and a man who plotted to burn down
a house to force six Mexicans out of his neighborhood, officials said.

During his two years in the Brooklyn district attorney's office, he enjoyed
a solid reputation as an up-and-coming prosecutor, those who knew him said.

"Jon was bright, highly responsible, looked out for his colleagues and
brought an effective blend of book smarts and street smarts to the table,"
said Jeff Kern, the former investigations bureau chief at the district
attorney's office, who once supervised Mr. Luna. "In the relatively short
time he was in the D.A.'s office, he achieved a substantial amount of
success and left a very positive impression."