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By
Carmen Gregg
- February 28, 2025
Court
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Daily Stories
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Homicides
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Suspects
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Victims
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Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Troy K. Hill denied defense counsel’s motion to suppress evidence found from homicide defendant Eric Morris’ Instagram account on Feb. 28.
Morris, 39, is charged with first-degree murder, firearm use in a felony or violent crime, and firearm possession with a previous felony conviction in reference to the fatal shooting of Wayne Archer Jr. on Dec. 10, 2020.
During a 2024 execution of a search and seizure warrant for an unrelated narcotics investigation, investigators found clothing that allegedly linked Morris to the 2020 homicide.
According to an application for a search warrant, during a March 9, 2021 arrest of an unrelated person, investigators recovered a firearm and found it likely matched the one used in Archer’s fatal shooting.
Baltimore Police Department (BPD) detectives received a tip from a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent that they were able to find Morris’ Instagram account after learning he used the nickname “Eazy.”
Based on common knowledge that suspects often sell and distribute weapons through social media, detectives obtained a search warrant requesting access to all data associated with Morris’ Instagram account, including records of several years of direct messages.
Defense attorney James Johnston claimed that if an investigation has to ask a social media service like Facebook to send data of an account, the search warrant could be considered “overbroad.”
“That strikes me as fishing,” Johnston said in reference to the examination of years of Morris’ direct messages.
Judge Hill ruled that Morris’ Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure had been protected and that the search warrant was sufficiently specific to establish probable cause to investigate Morris’ Instagram account.
Morris’ four-day trial is set to begin on May 27.