East Lafayette Street Shooter Found Not Guilty after Defense Argues There Was No Evidence in 2019 Murder

By Andrew Michaels , Alyssia Davis [former] - April 3, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

A 49-year-old Baltimore City man was found not guilty on March 29 for the murder of Desmond Scroggins, who was shot in the head and killed late one night along East Lafayette Street in September 2019.

During the week-long trial before Circuit Court Judge Nicole Barmore, defense attorney Tony Garcia argued that the prosecution had no evidence against his client, Ronald Brady Jr., linking him to the 44-year-old’s death. Brady was accused of shooting Scroggins through the front door of the victim’s home after the two had an argument earlier that evening.

“The state’s attorney hasn’t shown a video of a fight,” Garcia said during closing arguments on March 28. “The state’s attorney tried to make it look more than what it is.”

The prosecutor previously told the jury that on Sept. 9, 2019, Brady and Scroggins were arguing when the victim hit the defendant. When Scroggins left, she said, he called his girlfriend on his way home just after 11:00 p.m., saying that he had a fight and “knocked your co-worker out.”

Brady was embarrassed, the prosecutor continued, so he followed the victim home and shot him. It was also revealed that when Baltimore Police investigated potential cell phone evidence, all of the content on the defendant’s phone had been erased.

“Why would you have everything in your phone erased, especially in this day and age when most people’s smartphones mean everything to them?” the prosecutor asked the jury.

Garcia later told jurors that he hoped no one else gets accused or charged with such a crime just “because their phone was within a half of a mile of someone getting killed.”