Trial Begins for 29-Year-Old Man in Deadly Case of Mistaken Identity

By Andrew Michaels - January 16, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Juveniles | Non-Fatal Shooting | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

The death of 17-year-old Ray Glasgow was “a case of mistaken identity,” a prosecutor declared before a jury on Jan. 13 in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

After a day of jury selection, the trial of 29-year-old homicide defendant Bradley Mitchell began Friday morning with opening statements from the prosecution and defense attorney Martin Cohen.

“This case really makes you think about life,” the prosecutor continued as she detailed the events that unfolded on the evening of May 5, 2018. According to the assistant state’s attorney, the shooting is said to have been in retaliation for a robbery.

Glasgow and his three friends were sitting in a black Honda Accord on the 100 block of South Broadway Street just after 6 p.m. when Mitchell and his co-defendants, 37-year-old Eric Jackson and 25-year-old Shawn Little, drove past them in a white Nissan Altima. The suspects proceeded to make a U-turn and then park behind the Accord.

The prosecutor noted that the suspects believed the Accord’s occupants to be those responsible for robbing Jackson weeks prior.

As Little walked up to the driver’s window and gestured for the driver to roll down his window, Mitchell “thinks he saw someone in the car with a gun,” the prosecutor said and opened fire. Glasgow was shot three times in the torso and later died from his injuries. An 18-year-old friend of Glasgow’s was also shot twice but survived, and the two victims in the backseat were uninjured.

“He didn’t have to shoot them,” the prosecutor said at the end of her opening statement, adding that the jury will hear testimony from Little against Mitchell and Bradley.

Seconds later, Cohen professed his disagreement with the prosecutor’s argument, saying that Little was actually the shooter and consistently lied about what happened. One of his alleged lies occurred during an interview with Baltimore Police detectives, Cohen said, when Little told police he was in the backseat of the Altima. After police said the shooting came from the backseat, Little changed his story.

“‘Oh, oh, I was in the front seat,’” said Cohen, recalling Little’s statements to police.

Aside from Little’s statement, the defense attorney told the jurors there was no additional evidence, including DNA or fingerprints, that supported the charges against his client.

Testimony began with an officer who responded to the scene of the shooting and continued Friday afternoon before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Schiffer.