Murder Defendant Acquitted In 2020 Fatal Stabbing

By Alyssia Davis [former] - October 7, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects | Victims |

A 31-year-old Baltimore man was acquitted on Oct 12 after facing charges for homicide.

Isaiah Eaddy was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon with intent to injure in connection to the fatal stabbing of Roderick Odom on May 12, 2020. 

Opening statements in the case of Eaddy were heard before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Dana Middleton on Oct. 6.

“You are here for the most important case, a homicide,” the prosecutor told jurors during opening statements. “What’s more horrifying than taking someone’s life? To stab someone you have to be up close to them”. 

The prosecutor told jurors they will see video of the victim and the defendant at a BP gas station. She also told jurors, they will hear the defendant give a statement to the police and then change it throughout the course of the investigation.

“The victim was stabbed and left to die in the back of an alley, ” said the prosecutor, explaining that the victim was stabbed in the chest in a car before being placed in an alley. She added that jurors will see a SUV pull up in the alley then back out. 

“There was intent to kill the victim,” she said. “When you stab someone in the chest you only have the intent to kill them.”

“The defendant was just driving but he is too guilty of the death of Odom.”

Eaddy’s defense counsel Bradley MacFee argued there is uncertainty if the victim was alive or not when the police arrived on scene, but we do know that he died at the hospital. 

“This case bare’s a lot of similarities to a lot of other cases,” said MacFee. “There are specifics on which the prosecutor and defense agree on. For example, in April 2020 the victim was killed behind a gas station, the defendant was present, driving a gray Ford Escape inside of which the victim may have been in.” 

Macfee argued the prosecutor says three people were in the SUV but Macfee believes there were four people. 

“Guess, assume, and speculate. In order to convict Eaddy, the prosecutor will require you to engage in guess work, speculation and assumption. When you don’t know something you have to guess, assume, and speculate. No one knows what happened in that alley.”

Macfee told jurors “We don’t convict people based on guessing, assumption, and speculation, only facts and evidence.” 

Following opening statements, a 911 call was played for the court. The caller said he found an unresponsive man in the back of an alley not moving or breathing. 

A medical examiner testified that she observed that the victim had significant stab wounds to the chest. She ruled the victim’s cause of death was a stab wound to the chest and the manner of death was a homicide. She said there was no evidence of the victim being drugged or intoxicated at the time of the incident. 

A Baltimore Police serologist said she recovered two seat cushions, a phone, white nike sneakers, jeans and a blood card from the victim. She said part of the seat cushion was taken into the evidence for DNA testing. DNA testing was also conducted on the shoes and jeans recovered. 

She noted that it took a few days to complete her analysis. The DN evidence did not come back with a conclusive match to the defendant.

A crime lab technician testified that she examined a 2006 gray Ford Escape with Virginia tags. She said she noticed that the front bumper of the vehicle was damaged on the driver side.