Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Michael Anthony DiPietro denied a defense motion for a mistrial on March 10, ordering proceedings to continue in the murder trial of Idris Ramos.
Ramos, 52, is charged with the stabbing death of Tyrell Curtis, 39, on June 21, 2025. Though Ramos’ attorney argued for a mistrial due to alleged interactions between a juror and a detective witness—including a juror offering the detective a donut and the detective complimenting a juror’s outfit—Judge DiPietro found no evidence of bias after questioning jurors individually.
Trial proceedings centered on surveillance footage found near the 100 block of S. Broadway, where the crime occurred. A homicide sergeant identified Ramos in court as the man seen on CCTV with “clenched fists” approaching the victim at 2 a.m. The sergeant demonstrated Ramos’s “aggressive walk” for the jury, noting the suspect fled quickly after the stabbing.
Defense attorney Deborah Warner-Dennis slammed the investigation as “targeted,” arguing poor lighting and camera angles in the CCTV footage created a visual “abyss.” She highlighted that the sergeant admitted being unable to identify Ramos’s face in still images, and that he also lost sight of the suspect while watching the footage. Furthermore, investigators failed to pursue potential leads regarding Ramos’s former girlfriend, who was seen with him in the footage.
The prosecution’s case took a negative turn when Ramos’s former girlfriend, who is currently detained, took the stand while admittedly under the influence of drugs. After telling the court, “I was in my own world,” she claimed she never saw who stabbed the victim.
Warner-Dennis pointed out that detectives originally gave the witness food in exchange for information while she was under the influence.
According to court records, Jones was stabbed once in the heart and later pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Two days later, officers on a routine traffic stop spotted Ramos wearing a “Billion Dollar Baby” shirt and a red durag—matching the suspect’s description.
While the murder weapon—a folding knife—was never recovered, police records state that Ramos previously identified himself in surveillance stills and allegedly admitted to stabbing Jones once after a heated argument that occurred while he was looking for food in the area.
