Defense counsel in the murder trial against Timothy Knott asked jurors to “forget about the evidence” on Sept. 24 but assess the poor quality of the prosecution and Baltimore Police Department’s (BPD) investigation into the killing of 42-year-old Anthony Pearson in April 2024.
During closing arguments, Knott’s attorney, Warren Brown, reminded the jury that there were four people in the alley on the 4700 block of Garrison Boulevard at the time of the shooting on April 29, 2024. Among them were two BGE workers, an intoxicated woman and a second woman who suffered a graze wound near her left armpit from the gunfire.
Brown criticized the prosecution for not calling the female victim to testify nor the detectives who interviewed her as well as BPD for neglecting to pursue any potential information from the intoxicated woman.
The prosecutor noted that the female victim has multiple warrants out for her arrest for failing to appear in court and police have been unable to locate her during the past two years. As shown in video evidence, the intoxicated woman is seen passed out on the steps of a nearby home when police were on the scene.
“The video [of the defendant] is not very clear,” Brown continued during his closing argument. “You never see [the defendant] with a handgun at all.”
BPD did not search Knott’s home for the murder weapon, he added.
Despite the case’s reliance on circumstantial evidence, the prosecutor said two videos and cell site records strongly connect Knott to the shooting. In the first video played by the prosecution, Knott is allegedly identified walking down Garrison Boulevard around the time of the shooting with a limp that he previously acknowledged was from an unrelated injury. The female victim was the only other person to exit the alley after the defendant before she was interviewed by BPD at the corner of Garrison Boulevard and Belvieu Avenue.
The female victim later told police where the shooting occurred.
The jury also saw a second video from Belvieu Avenue showing the defendant pull up and exit a red 2003 Chrysler minivan, walk and limp through a nearby tree line, allegedly shoot Pearson and run back to the minivan to drive away. The prosecutor said one of the BGE employee’s was in the company vehicle’s bucket above and reported hearing the shooting, while the other employee was on the opposite side of the vehicle.
Cell site records were the third key piece of evidence the prosecutor asked the jury to keep in mind, saying the defendant’s claims to police that he was home all day — aside from walking his children to school — were false because his cell phone moved with the minivan he was seen driving. Knott’s cell phone pinged off of nearby cell towers in the vicinity of the shooting at the time it occurred and later pinged off of other cell towers as the minivan traveled south after Pearson was shot.
License plate readers reportedly photographed Knott’s vehicle between the locations, the prosecutor said.
Unlike many cases, the prosecutor explained, Knott also had a motive for shooting Pearson, who was accused but never convicted of fatally shooting of Knott’s cousin, Eric Rufus, in January 2022. A detective from BPD’s homicide unit testified early Thursday morning that he investigated the death of Knott’s cousin but was only able to identify Pearson as a suspect.
The case is being heard before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Robert K. Taylor.
The jury began their deliberations Thursday morning, which are expected to continue into the afternoon.
