Following a four-day jury trial, Dalen Randall, 24, was acquitted on Feb. 4 of attempted first- and second-degree murder in connection to a carjacking-turned-shooting that occurred last June.
However, jurors convicted the defendant of first-degree assault, firearm use in a felony violent crime, illegally possessing a firearm despite a disqualifying felony conviction and having a handgun on his person.
Randall’s charges come from an incident in which he tracked a man who reportedly stole his mother’s vehicle to a gas station on 2800 block of Edmonson Avenue and fired eight times, striking the victim in the right arm. The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital and survived the shooting.
The prosecutor argued to the jury that Randall had a strong motive to shoot the victim, as his mother had been the victim of a carjacking. However, the circumstantial evidence presented by the state ultimately proved insufficient to secure a guilty verdict.
The verdict was delivered before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Anthony Vittoria. Jurors ultimately sided with defense counsel on Randall’s attempted murder charges, finding the state failed to meet its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
