Closing Arguments in a 2022 Murder Case

By Kris Su - December 20, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects |

In closing arguments before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Althea M. Handy on Dec. 19, parties debated Draquan Smith‘s involvement in a homicide.

Smith, 22, is accused of murdering 20-year-old Joshua Camara on the 2600 block of Northshire Drive on March 27, 2022. The charges include first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and firearm use in a felony violent crime.

Smith was earlier found guilty of attempted murder in an incident three months after the shooting on Northshire Drive.

The prosecutor showed CCTV footage of Smith among a group of people allegedly sprinting down the street and pointing in the direction of where Camara was found mortally wounded supporting the notion that he intended to find the victim and murder him.

Defense attorneys Latoya Francis-Williams and Sheridan Yeary insisted their client had nothing to do with the killing, nor did he use a firearm.

Other than a recorded gunshot coming out of an alley, says the defense, the prosecutor has no videotaped evidence that Smith shot the victim and is asking the jury “to make a leap, to make inferences.”

The defense claimed that the prosecution’s witnesses could not be trusted, since they were also charged with assaulting the victim prior to the shooting.