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By
Brian Cohen [former]
- June 16, 2023
Court
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Daily Stories
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Homicides
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Shooting
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Victims
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On June 15, a Baltimore City murder defendant complained this scheduled trial date was “too much” after waiting incarcerated for over a year.
“I don’t have any evidence. I don’t have nothing and you’re talking about December,” defendant Kevin Dudley said in frustration while using profanity during the hearing.
Dudley’s trial was scheduled for Dec. 11 by Baltimore City Circuit Judge Melissa M. Phinn and is expected to last five days. The trial date was set well beyond Dudley’s Hick’s date of Feb. 8, 2022. A Hick’s date is the state of Maryland’s obligation to bring a defendant’s case to trial within 180 days of his or his attorney’s first court appearance.
Judge Phinn cautioned Dudley not to use profanity in court or she’d have him removed. Dudley was put in a break-out room with his defense attorney Maureen Rowland, but ultimately defense agreed to the Dec. 11 trial date when they returned.
The prosecution offered the 40-year-old defendant a plea of life, suspending all but 60 years with five years of supervised probation for first-degree murder and firearm use in a violent crime in connection to a murder on June 3, 2021.
Dudley rejected the offered plea.
Dudley is accused of murdering 18-year-old high school student Kozee Spriggs whose decomposing body was found on the 1300 block of Ensor Street after she was reported missing twice by her mother.
According to court documents, Spriggs was known to be involved in narcotics sales and got into an altercation with a man known as “LB” for not returning his drugs and/or money at an agreed-upon date. Further investigation identified “LB” as the defendant.
CCTV footage at the time of the incident showed a red Chrysler Sedan with identical markings to one Dudley was renting at the time, turn into an alley adjacent to where the victim’s body was found. Three suspects were seen exiting the car and later fleeing from the scene.
After his arrest, Dudley initially denied involvement in Spriggs’ murder. He later admitted to investigators he was present at the time of Spriggs’ murder and drove the car away from the scene when presented with evidence.