Retrial Underway for 2018 Murder Conviction

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The retrial for Marco Holmes, 28, for the shooting death of his girlfriend in 2017, took place Sept. 8 at the Baltimore City Circuit Court.

Holmes was convicted in April 2018 of second-degree murder, handgun on person, and using a firearm during a felony-violent crime. He was originally sentenced to 50 years in prison. The defendant was granted a retrial on Aug. 9, 2021.

During the hearing Thursday, counsel debated 20-year-old Tonja Chadwick’s time of death.

A missing person’s report was filed for Chadwick on Jan. 30, 2017. Chadwick had not been seen by family since leaving her aunt’s house on the evening of Jan 28, 2017. Her body was found in Daisy Park on Feb. 2, 2017, wrapped in a sheet and comforter; she had been shot in the head at close range.

The medical examiner could not prove the exact time of Chadwicks death because the body was left exposed in the cold.

Surveillance footage from Laundry City located at 5200 Moravia Road, the last day anyone saw the victim, showed Chadwick and the defendant on camera engaging in a physical altercation.

The prosecutor also presented evidence of objects with blood stains, photos and witness testimonials that were used leading to the defendant’s conviction in 2018.

According to court documents, the couple had just leased an apartment on the 4700 block of Parkside Garden Way on Jan 21, 2017, just one week before the murder.

A Baltimore Police Department (BPD) sergeant, who was the first to enter the couple’s apartment for a wellness check on Jan. 31, 2017, noticed that the front door of the apartment was locked and two large brown stains inside the apartment. The stains tested positive for blood.

The defense attorney Roland Brown argued that one of the witness’s testimony from a previous Holmes trial was contradicting this trial.

Holmes’ cousin told the court that he went to the Parkside Garden apartment with Holmes, where he helped the defendant remove a bag of clothes, in heavy duty black trash bags, wearing blue latex gloves.

In testimony from the April 2018 trial, Gardner said he “wore the gloves because something on the bag was sticky.” In this trial the cousin of Holmes said he “just wore the gloves because the clothes were dirty.” He alleges that he couldn’t recall who’s clothes he put inside the bag.

According to Baltimore Witness, a plea had been offered in the retrial, but was declined Feb. 7 by the defendant and his attorney Roland Brown. Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Videtta Brown set the trial to resume on Sept.12.