Attempted Murder Suspect’s Fate in Hands of the Jury

By Andrew Michaels - August 17, 2021
Court | Daily Stories | Non-Fatal Shooting | Shooting |

Jury deliberation commenced in an attempted murder case against a 20-year-old on Aug. 16 after a three-day trial before Baltimore City Circuity Court Judge M. Brooke Murdock.

The trial began on Aug. 12 with jury selection and counsels’ opening statements when the prosecution and defense attorney Jonathan Kerr informed the jury of James Phillips’ alleged involvement in the attempted murder of two brothers on Nov. 11, 2019, outside Grocery Deli and Carryout on the 3400 block of Belair Road.

According to the Maryland Judiciary website, the Baltimore resident is charged with first and second-degree attempted murder, first and second-degree assault, firearm use in a violent crime, and reckless endangerment as well as illegal possession of a firearm, minor in possession of a firearm, having a handgun on his person, carrying a handgun within 100 yards of a school, discharging a gun in the city, and illegal possession of ammunition.

“You heard no testimony of an accidental misfire,” the prosecutor said Monday during closing arguments. “What you heard was [the younger brother] saw [the older brother] arguing with the defendant and ‘pop pop.’”

The prosecutor also replayed a snippet of one of Phillips’ jail calls when he is heard saying the only reason he would get caught was if people were “ratting” or “telling” on him.

However, Kerr responded with an analogy, describing the case as a jigsaw puzzle and the pieces of the puzzle were the prosecution’s evidence.

“If all of the pieces fit together, you get a picture,” Kerr said. “But what happens if pieces of the puzzle  go missing? The more pieces that go missing, the less of a picture there is [and] there are pieces missing everywhere.”

Kerr also said that the prosecution did not call the older brother to the testify because “he didn’t give any helpful information.” Phillips should be acquitted of all charges, he said.

On Monday, the prosecution also called its first expert witness: a forensic scientist and Baltimore Police firearm analyst. The expert said her duties included examining firearms, bullets, and cartridges, including how to determine whether two or more bullets came from the same firearm.

During her analysis, the witness said, she confirmed the bullets were fired from a .45 caliber automatic firearm and matched the two shell casings found outside the deli on the ground and the other in the storefront wall.

During cross-examination, Kerr asked the firearm analyst if it was possible to retrieve DNA from shell casings, and she agreed. However, he added, a request for DNA analysis of the shell casings was never submitted.

Testimony also came from an 11-year veteran with the Baltimore Police Department. The detective said he has spent nearly a decade working with the department’s District Action Team, which is assigned to patrol specific areas in the city. The detective said he was assigned to patrol between the 2500 block and 4200 block of Belair Road, which includes the location of the shooting.

The detective said his duties included looking for any signs of drug transactions, robberies, or shootings, in addition to developing a rapport with the community. He described the area as “very violent” and that he commonly patrols the 3200 block through the 3600 block on foot for at least an hour five days a week.

The detective said he had frequently seen Phillips around Belair Road and Brendan Avenue and Belair Road and Mayfield Avenue, confirming that he had seen the defendant in the area in the Fall of 2019. Although he said he never directly spoke with Phillips, the detective said he has greeted others around him in passing.

The detective said he did not get fully involved in the investigation, but he did inform the lead detective of Phillips’ identity as a person of interest from a photo still of the deli’s surveillance footage that circulated around the department.

Kerr acknowledged that the detective, who frequently patrols the area, interacts with the community. However, he said, the detective did not tell the lead detective whether he knew anyone else in the video footage aside from Phillips.

According to the lead detective, surveillance footage shows a friend of Phillips was also at the scene. During the trial, the prosecution said the friend and older brother had gotten into an argument as Phillips stood watching nearby.

On Aug. 13, during opening statements, the detective and one of the victims provided details of the shooting. The lead detective told the jury he arrived at the scene to find the older brother outside the deli with a gunshot wound to his left arm. The younger brother, who was roughly a block away, sustained a similar gunshot wound.

The younger brother also testified on Friday, saying the pain medications he received at the hospital and after being discharged affected his judgement during interviews with detectives. He said he felt detectives were “pressuring me” to identify Phillips as the shooter, to which Kerr added that no photo array was conducted.

Over the past two days, the prosecution and defense proceeded to present additional evidence, including 911 calls from the night of the shooting, footage and photo stills from three of the deli’s video surveillance cameras, two shell casings found at the scene, and excerpts from Phillips’ jail calls.

Phillips’ case now rests in the hands of a jury of nine women and three men. Deliberation began around 3 p.m. on Aug. 16.