‘He is a Better Man Than Me,’ Defense Attorney Argues

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A defense attorney argued March 25 that a homeless man was innocent in a fatal stabbing that occurred near the vicinity of a local church.

Fielding Bame is charged with second-degree murder and carrying a dangerous weapon openly with the intent to harm and injure for stabbing 48-year-old D’Ondre Quickley, another homeless man, at a church located on the 100 block of N. Front Street on July 12, 2024. According to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Quickley died eight days later due to complications.

“He’s a better man than me,” Jason Rodriguez, Bame’s defense attorney told the jury, explaining that he was not “this cold, bloody killer.”

Rodriguez said Bame, 42, did not initiate the altercation and sat idly as Quickley threw multiple items at him, including a water cup.

Rodriguez says the defendant was acting in self-defense because the victim, at one point, started to attack him with the buckle of his belt. Rodriguez called the belt a “deadly weapon”.

The prosecutor argued that Bame should have left the church after encountering Quickley. The defense rebutted, saying all of Bame’s possessions were in the area and he had no other place to go.

“Do you know that phrase? You don’t bring a gun to a knife fight and you don’t bring a knife to a fistfight,” the prosecutor said.

There was absolute proof of harm, the prosecutor said, explaining the stab wound was two-and-a-half inches deep. She also said Bame gloated about stabbing Quickley.

Acknowledging the defense’s demonstration of the belt being a weapon to cause harm, the prosecutor said, this is “not laughable,” as a person lost his life.

“I ask you to find the defendant guilty in this case,” the prosecutor told the jury, “because he is guilty.”

The trial is set to resume on March 26 before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Kimberly McBride.