Defense Claims ‘Tunnel Vision’ Skewed Investigations in Triple Case Trial

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As Everette Schwartz’s four-day jury trial came to a close on May 15, defense attorney Jason P. Rodriguez disputed the reliability of firearms, location, and identification evidence presented to the jury and claimed law enforcement adopted too narrow a scope while investigating Schwartz’s three cases. Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer presided over the hearing.

Schwartz, 37, is charged with first-degree murder and assault, attempted first-degree murder, firearm use and possession with a prior felony conviction, and armed robbery in connection to three incidents from 2021:

On Jan. 21, 46-year-old Tavaughn Anderson was shot and killed on the 1700 block of N. Chester Street,
On Jan. 28, an unnamed man, then 42 years old, was shot in the 1700 block of Wilkens Avenue, and
On Feb. 1, 34-year-old Timothy Orem was shot and killed in the 3600 block of Shelby Avenue.

In the Jan. 21 incident, at approximately 12:23 a.m., officers responded to the 1700 block of N. Chester Street and located Anderson sitting in his white Dodge Charger, suffering from a gunshot wound. After attempting lifesaving measures, officers transported Anderson to an area hospital, where he was pronounced deceased at approximately 12:41 a.m. Medical staff located one gunshot wound in his back.

Officers located the crime scene and recovered ten spent .40-caliber Smith & Wesson cartridge casings. A Baltimore Police Department homicide detective responded and spoke with witnesses who advised they heard the gunshots but did not witness the shooting.

Footage from two area CCTVs established a time frame for the shooting that matched the timing of the ShotSpotter alert. At approximately 12:11 a.m., Anderson’s white Dodge Charger was captured at the incident location. About seven minutes later, Schwartz’s silver 2003 Acura MDX — identifiable by its sunroof, tinted front windows, and sideward license plate — was allegedly seen turning from 1800 N. Chester Street onto the 1700 block.

At approximately 12:19 a.m., an area ShotSpotter device detected gunfire.

Roughly eight days later, at approximately 11:09 p.m., officers responded to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center for a report of a walk-in shooting victim with a gunshot wound to his torso.

While investigating, officers located a crime scene in the 1700 block of Wilkens Avenue. Recovered evidence included spent .40-caliber shell casings and surveillance video footage from the 1600 block of Wilkens Avenue that captured a man, later identified as Schwartz, driving his Acura MDX and stopping near the victim on Wilkens Avenue in an apparent bout of road rage.

The suspect and victim appeared to converse before the victim began returning to his own vehicle. The suspect then opened fire, prompting the victim to hide behind a vehicle. The suspect fled. The victim later advised law enforcement the suspect was wearing a mask that obscured his face, but appeared to be a white male, like Schwartz.

At the Shock Trauma Center, officers presented the victim with a photographic array. He was unable to identify a suspect.

While investigating, a BPD detective executed a search and seizure warrant on Schwartz’s Acura MDX and recovered a cellphone that belonged to Schwartz. Schwartz later allegedly admitted the cellphone and vehicle both belonged to him.

The detective was unable to download Schwartz’s cellphone data, and instead obtained a cell site warrant to triangulate the phone’s location before, during and after the incident.

At approximately 10:48 p.m. on the day of the incident, Schwartz’s cellphone and license plate were both located northwest of the scene. About eight minutes later, license plate readers captured Schwartz’s Acura MDX on N. Chester Street. Vehicle and cellphone data showed both the vehicle and cellphone travelled through the Brooklyn Homes neighborhood following the shooting.

On Feb. 2, 2023, the detective received notice that firearms were recovered from the 1700 block of N. Chester Street. Upon analysis, three separate firearms examiners found the weapons consistent with the 10 spent .40-caliber casings recovered from the Jan. 21, 2021 incident in the 1700 block of N. Chester Street.

Rodriguez contested the validity of the results.

“That firearms evidence and testimony is not something that’s reliable — it’s not science,” he told the jury. “They just do as they see fit.”

The prosecution said the three examiners who conducted analyses on the recovered firearms and casings had significant experience in their fields, and that all three reached consistent conclusions. She emphasized that examiners don’t disclose their analysis processes with each other, only the results.

“What stays consistent is firearm evidence, and that’s what we have in this case,” she said. “All of that evidence adds up.”

Rodriguez said law enforcement failed to follow up on potentially critical leads, including ten DNA swabs that had been collected from “high traffic” areas inside the Acura MDX. One swab was taken from the steering wheel. No samples were analyzed.

“This case is what happens, unfortunately, when police and detectives get tunnel vision, right?” Rodriguez asked the jury. “They ignore everything else, right?”

He claimed investigators adopted a biased mindset “right from the start.”

“He works backward through this tunnel vision,” said Rodriguez.

The prosecution denied Rodriguez’s claims, arguing law enforcement could have arrested Schwartz much sooner and with less evidence.

“This is not a case of tunnel vision,” she said. “This is a case where every piece of evidence points to Everette Schwartz.”

The jury deliberates.