HURLOCK, Md. -- The asphalt court where Carlton Dotson developed his skills stood empty, and a trophy case at the high school he led to a state basketball championship was pushed aside for maintenance work.

On the top shelf Tuesday sat the 1999 championship ball, bearing North Dorchester High School players' autographs. Beneath Dotson's angular signature was his jersey number, 55, and the title: "King of Da Court."

Residents of this small farming community on Maryland's Eastern Shore were still coming to grips with the murder charge that has tarnished the king's crown.

Dotson, 21, was arrested Monday night in Chestertown, Md., on a warrant issued by Texas authorities, who believe he killed Patrick Dennehy, his former Baylor University teammate who has been missing for more than five weeks.

"It's a shock," said Kevin Jones, 21, who played with Dotson on the North Dorchester team and was one of his closest high school buddies. "He's just a good person. I don't believe he did it."

Investigators in Texas searched on foot and horseback for Dennehy's body Tuesday in a gravel pit just miles from the Baptist university Dotson and Dennehy attended last season.

According to an arrest warrant released Tuesday, Dotson admitted to FBI agents that he shot Dennehy in the head "because Patrick had tried to shoot him."

As he left the Kent County courthouse Monday, Dotson told a reporter: "I didn't confess to anything."

Dennehy, 21, was last seen on the Baylor campus June 12, and his family reported him missing June 19. The next day, Waco police said an informant told authorities in Delaware that Dotson told someone he shot Dennehy in the head after the two argued.

Hurlock residents who knew Dotson say they can't believe the talented athlete and gangly jokester voted "most athletic" and "biggest flirt" by his senior classmates could be capable of killing.

"Other than being an athlete, he was a normal guy," said Stephanie Humphreys, 20, Dotson's senior prom date.

In the living room of the small house Humphreys shares with her mother is a prom picture, showing her in a white gown standing next to Dotson decked out in black bowler hat, white jacket and cane, and two-tone shoes.

On Tuesday, Dotson wore an orange jumpsuit, handcuffs and shackles to a hearing in Chestertown, where he was ordered held without bail and his attorneys signaled they would fight extradition to Texas.

Humphreys said she hasn't spoken to Dotson since they graduated three years ago, but that she was upset about the rush to judgment she perceives in the media.

"I imagine if you talk to anybody around here who knows him, nobody would have anything negative to say," said Vincent Simms, who played basketball with Dotson's father.

Simms said he thinks too many people are ready to presume Dotson guilty, but that he understands Dennehy's family needs to have some closure.

"Even now, we don't know exactly what transpired," he said. "We hope and pray for the best for both families. ... They both need it."

Dennehy's stepfather and mother, Brian and Valorie Brabazon, have said Dennehy was threatened shortly before his disappearance and reported the threats to his coaches.

Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss said in a statement Tuesday that Dennehy never reported any threats to the coaching staff. Bliss said the team and university were shaken by the turn of events. "We keep hoping this isn't true," he said.

According to the arrest warrant, Dotson was seen June 12 in the Texas hometown of his estranged wife driving Dennehy's Chevrolet Tahoe. The vehicle was found abandoned, without license plates, in Virginia Beach, Va., on June 25.

Last Thursday, Dotson spoke with Dorchester County Sheriff's officials but was not taken into custody.

Three days later, Dotson made a 911 call from a grocery store in Chestertown, about 55 miles from his hometown of Hurlock. Police said he told them he needed counseling and was hearing voices. Dotson asked to speak with FBI agents after being taken to a hospital.

"I don't think he's in a mental state right now to be speaking to anyone in any lucid fashion," said Dotson's attorney, Grady Irvin of St. Petersburg, Fla.

"A guy goes in for a psychological evaluation and it turns into a police interrogation," he said. "How that happens, I don't know."

Dotson's estranged wife, Melissa Kethley of Sulphur Springs, Texas, said she's known that Dotson needed psychological help for a long time.

"He needs help, the boy needs help," a tearful Kethley said in a telephone interview.

"Maybe, if he did do this, it's a blessing in disguise, and he can get the help he needs," she said.

Kethley said Dotson, a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in high school, seemed to become more interested in religion recently. She said he had been calling her nearly every day during the last few weeks, and that he even called her Monday as he talked with the FBI.

"He said he had so many things to talk to me about, but it would have to be for later," she said.