A 27-year-old woman delivered a guarded testimony on Dec. 17 against one of the women accused–a former friend– of attacking her in a coordinated assault outside her East Baltimore home earlier this year.
Her accused assailant, 24-year-old Destiny Janet Williams, is charged with attempted murder, assault, conspiracy, and three firearm violations in connection to the incident, which unfolded minutes after 1 a.m. on April 30. Williams is suspected to be one of multiple individuals who conspired to physically attack the victim outside her front porch on the 3500 block of Juneway.
Williams’ girlfriend at the time, 27-year-old Cashay Booth, faces more serious charges, including conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and assault, as well as second-degree assault and conspiracy to use a firearm in a felony crime of violence.
The state’s attorney explained to jurors that the victim and her accused assailants became acquainted in elementary school, and that victim came to know Williams through Booth, who had been her “best friend” of several years.
“Like three years ago, me and Cashay got to be best friends,” the victim told the court, explaining that dynamics changed when grievances arose between them that grew into animosity. “I don’t know what that beef was even about, we just stopped talking.”
Though Williams and Booth were charged in connection to their alleged actions on April 30, both the defense and prosecution traced the altercation’s roots to the previous day at a McDonald’s restaurant located on Pulaski Highway.
Though Booth’s younger sister was the only one working that day, multiple people involved in the Juneway fight were employed part-time at the location, counsel said. On April 29, a fight broke out at the McDonald’s between Booth’s younger sister and the victim’s two younger sisters.
The fight then moved to Johnston Square Elementary School, where the victim testified she met up with her two sisters, Booth, Booth’s younger sister, and a small crowd of others. Approximately 15 people were at the scene, she told jurors. At the school, she said Booth attempted to provoke her to fight, but that she refused because she was pregnant at the time.
Around 1 a.m. the following day, just hours after the altercations occurred at McDonald’s and Johnston Square, Booth, Williams, and dozens of others wearing masks allegedly pulled up to the victim’s residence on Juneway. Four children were inside the residence at the time, the victim said, aged 4, 7, 9, and 11.
“When they pulled up to the house, they came deep,” the victim recalled on the stand. “It was a lot of guys, they had face masks on.”
While Williams’ defense attorney, public defender Brandon Thornton, questioned the victim about her younger sisters’ alleged use of boiled grease, bleach, and a machete during the Juneway fight, the victim claimed she was too focused on her own predicament to pay attention to her sisters’ actions.
She told the court that Booth tried to provoke her to come off the porch and that she refused again, citing her pregnancy. That was when Booth swung, she said. During the tussle, the victim recalled seeing Williams allegedly holding a handgun — “a small, silver thing” — and hearing two gunshots.
“I knew they was gon’ try shoot at me, ‘cuz I saw Destiny with the gun at Johnston Square,” the victim said. She denied seeing the gun discharge, or which hand Williams used to fire it.
After the gunshots rang out, Booth allegedly admonished Williams, repeatedly demanding, “Why the F you do that?” and shouting that the latter was “doin’ too much.” Booth’s reprimands allowed the victim to deduce Williams was the source of gunfire, the victim said.
She said the attack left her dizzy, injured in the leg, and suffering from vaginal bleeding related to pregnancy complications she sustained in the attack.
Police received several 911 calls from witnesses in the area who reported gunshots, as well as “kids outside arguing” and “fighting and stuff out here in the street.”
The trial is expected to close tomorrow, Dec. 18, before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Kendra Y. Ausby, after which jurors will deliberate Williams’ charges.
