Prosecution Argues Defendant’s Threatening Texts Show Intent to Kill in East Eager Street Shooting

By Andrew Michaels - March 21, 2024
Attempted Murder | Court | Daily Stories | Non-Fatal Shooting | Shooting | Suspects |

An attempted murder defendant’s claims that his nephew was behind a 2022 shooting were quickly overshadowed by his text messages to the victim—threatening messages that a Baltimore City prosecutor said showed the defendant’s intent when he shot the man in the head two years ago.

During closing arguments in the trial of Marvin Edmonds on March 21, the prosecutor told the jury that the defendant’s intent to kill the victim could be deciphered within the 2,500-plus pages of the victim’s medical records, which detailed the injuries he sustained from the shooting on Feb. 19, 2022.

The prosecutor referred jurors to multiple pages in the report that detailed the victim’s bone fragments and brain injury caused from being shot in the left side of his head.

The bullet remains lodged in the right side of the victim’s head to this day, he said.

According to the prosecution, Baltimore Police Department (BPD) officers found the victim in the driver’s seat of his car on the 1500 block of East Eager Street shortly before 1 p.m. During their investigation, police allegedly found text messages Edmonds sent to the victim, including a photo the defendant took of the outside of the victim’s home followed by a photo of a gun in the defendant’s lap.

“We can meet straight the f*** up and do whatever you want,” Edmonds is heard yelling in a voice message played by the prosecution.

“This wasn’t a split-second, heat-of-the-moment decision,” the prosecutor said, refuting the defendant’s statement that these were “just words.”

“There’s a hole in [the victim’s] head that says otherwise,” the prosecutor reiterated.

The prosecution also questioned Edmonds’ nephew’s alleged involvement, saying that the defendant’s nephew had no qualms with the victim unlike the defendant.

“Everything appears that Marvin Edmonds acted alone,” he said.

After reminding the jury that his client must be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, Edmonds’ attorney, Rodney Gray, asked jurors to pay attention to the defendant’s actions during police questioning. Edmonds wasn’t identified as a suspect until about a year after the shooting, Gray said, and had agreed to talk to police after being read his Miranda Rights and without legal counsel present.

Defense counsel said Edmonds and the victim had their differences and parted ways. The threatening messages were sent in October 2021, four months before the shooting, and the defendant never left Baltimore City after the incident.

“That’s how innocent people act,” Gray said, adding that police chose not to investigate his client’s claims of his nephew’s involvement.

The prosecution’s decision to pursue conspiracy charges against Edmonds was also questionable given the prosecution’s claim that the defendant acted alone, Gray said.

“You can’t have it both ways,” he told jurors.

The jury began deliberating Thursday afternoon with Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer presiding.

Edmonds is currently facing charges of attempted first and second-degree murder, first and second-degree assault, firearm use in a felony or violent crime, firing a gun in Baltimore City and illegal possession of ammunition as well as four conspiracy charges and two counts of firearm possession with a felony conviction.