Client’s Arrest Based on ‘Tunnel Vision,’ Defense Counsel Says

By Braden Hamelin [former] - June 24, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Victims |

With an unusually large group of spectators, a murder defendant’s counsel used her opening statement to blame the police for “tunnel vision” that focused on her client.

Lakeyria Doughty is charged with first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon with intent to injure in connection to the murder of her girlfriend, 33-year-old Tiffany Wilson on New Year’s Day in 2021.

On June 22, Doughty’s defense attorney Andrea Jaskulsky argued that she sees the incident differently, saying Wilson accidentally stabbed herself during an altercation between the two women. Jaskulsky said the police were so focused on arresting Doughty they “tunnel visioned” onto her, despite DNA evidence showing that Doughty, 28, may have been attacked by Wilson. 

Jaskulsky also acknowledged that Doughty lied to police several times and promised to provide an explanation for those actions. 

The prosecution focused on a different point, highlighting the reports done by the medical examiner and the lab technicians, who collectively gathered evidence from blood, DNA, and an examination of the victim’s wounds to rule the incident a homicide.  

The prosecutor said there were possible defensive wounds on the victim’s face and hands, and the location of the stabbing, in the ribcage, did not match the defendant’s initial story that Wilson killed herself. 

The prosecutor presented body camera footage of the incident and the 9-1-1 call that Doughty made in her initial statements. The jury also heard evidence from the first-responding officer at the scene, a crime scene technician, Wilson’s mother, a DNA analyst, and the medical examiner from this case. 

Doughty, a talented and well-known dirt bike rider, was featured in the 2020 HBO movie about Baltimore bike gangs, “Charm City Kings.” 

According to the Baltimore Sun, Doughty, known as “Wheelie Queen,” allegedly stabbed Wilson in the chest in a home on the 1200 block of North Stricker Street around 4:15 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2021, before calling 9-1-1 and attempting to administer CPR to the victim. Doughty was arrested and charged later that day. 

The trial is set to resume June 23.