Acquitted: Trio Accused of 2019 Alleyway Murder Found Not Guilty

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Three men accused of a retaliatory murder from 2019 were acquitted on Feb. 7 following defense counsels’ arguments of limited evidence linking their clients to the death of 33-year-old Antonio Jackson.

A day after closing arguments, Darian Adams, Raquan Baylor and Kamar Robinson were found not guilty of first and second-degree murder and conspiring to commit first-degree murder as well as possessing a firearm either on their person or in a vehicle. The trio previously received a mistrial in December 2022 when the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer presided over the latest trial.

The prosecution maintained its argument from 2022 that Adams, 28, Baylor, 27 and Robinson, 22, shot and killed Jackson in retaliation for the murder of another man referred to as “Mr. Jones” and “Pootie” that occurred 10 hours earlier on June 22, 2019. The prosecutor claimed that Adams was friends with the victim in the earlier shooting.

The co-defendants first met up with one another on the 2100 block of East Monument Street before driving to the 800 block of North Bradford Street where Jackson was gunned down in an alley, the prosecutor said.

Bradley MacFee, Brandon Mead and Michael Tomko—the defense attorneys for Robinson, Baylor and Adams, respectively—all countered that the prosecution’s argument was no more than a theory with no evidence to back up the claims. In addition to a lack of DNA or fingerprints, the attorneys said there was also no clear identification of the shooters.

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