Thank you for reading Baltimore Witness.
Help us continue our mission into 2025 by donating to our end of year campaign.
By
Ziqi Zhou
- June 18, 2024
Court
|
Daily Stories
|
Homicides
|
Shooting
|
Suspects
|
Victims
|
Counsel delivered opening statements before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer on June 17 in the case of a 21-year-old defendant accused of a seemingly unprovoked murder outside of a Southeast Baltimore 7-Eleven.
Kerin Aviles-Alvarez, 21, faces charges of first-degree murder, firearm use in a felony violent crime, possession of a firearm as a minor and having a handgun on his person for an April 3, 2023, murder.
According to the prosecutor’s opening statement, the night of the incident, 21-year-old Edgar Bonilla-Guerra was walking through the 7-Eleven parking lot on the 6300 block of Eastern Avenue when Aviles-Alvarez, who was with his friends, ran around the corner, raised his gun and allegedly shot Bonilla-Guerra in the chest.
Defense attorney James Sweeting III, in his opening statement, urged the jury to maintain an open mind and reserve judgment until all the evidence has been presented.
The prosecution evidence included footage from a resident’s home security camera that captured someone discarding an object into a trash can in an alley shortly after the shooting. The item was later identified by Baltimore Police Department (BPD) officers as a gun.
Additional evidence shown to the jury included multiple videos from two witnesses, police officers’ body camera footage, along with a series of photographs taken by crime scene technician and the recovered firearm.
The trial is scheduled to continue on June 18.