Jury Finds Abingdon Man Guilty of Baltimore Bus Stop Murder in 2022

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A 35-year-old Harford County man accused of brutally murdering Keith Bell at a bus stop in 2022 was found guilty on Sept. 26 before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Althea M. Handy.

Gordon Staron was found guilty of first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon with the intent to injure for the death of the 63-year-old man on Sept. 6, 2022, following a three-day trial. His sentencing is currently scheduled on Dec. 19 when he is also expected to plead guilty for strangling and killing 34-year-old Javarick Gantt inside their shared jail cell at the Central Booking and Intake Facility in Baltimore City.

The prosecutor said Bell was at a bus stop on the 1400 block of East Monument Street when Staron attacked him with a hatchet, leaving the victim to die from multiple cutting and stab wounds as well as blunt force trauma injuries. Staron then drove to National Academy Foundation School, where he allegedly threw some items in a dumpster before driving away.

On Sept. 25, the prosecutor said video surveillance footage showed Staron driving around the crime scene in a silver Toyota Tacoma truck after Bell was killed. The truck was seen with its lights on approximately 22 minutes before Baltimore Police arrived and, over the next 13 minutes, the truck was seen in the area with its lights off.

The prosecutor asked the jury to decide the case based on the law and evidence, not emotion. Bell suffered six cutting wounds, 13 stab wounds and a fractured skull. Medical experts defined “cutting wounds” as those longer than stab wounds, which are considered deeper.

Jason Silverstein, Staron’s defense attorney, focused his argument on the lack of DNA evidence. According to the prosecutor, he said, Staron disposed of a pair of latex gloves that he was wearing at the time of the murder. However, Silverstein questioned how Staron managed to take the murder weapon—a hatchet—back to his home in Abingdon without getting his DNA on it given the defendant wasn’t wearing gloves and his DNA was never found on the weapon.

Defense counsel also reminded jurors of the lack of blood evidence, citing the expectation of more blood after such a brutal attack. No blood was found in Staron’s home or on the hatchet, the latter of which the prosecutor claimed the defendant cleaned with his shirt.

“If there was blood inside [the defendant’s] car, there would have been evidence it was cleaned,” like bleach, Silverstein added.