On Aug. 24, closing arguments were presented in Baltimore City Circuit Court before Judge Jeannie Hong in an attempted triple homicide. The intended victims were a father and his two stepdaughters, ages four and 16. Troy Ayers, age 43, is accused of committing the crime, along with several felony firearm violations, on the 3900 block of Harlem Avenue on September, 30, 2025.
The prosecution said the defendant created a “kill-zone” firing 12 shots at his intended target, while the children were also in the car. The 16-year-old was shot in the head, and the e 4-year-old was grazed by a bullet that was nearly fatal.
The prosecutor said that the state’s only witness, the victim, had to relocate as part of a witness protection program out of fear of reprisal for his testimony.
Laying out the state’s evidence, the prosecutor first detailed surveillance video from the stepfather’s front porch. The recording captured audio of 12 shots being fired, as well as footage of the stepfather’s vehicle and a vehicle said to be the vehicle the defendant was allegedly driving.
Soon after the shooting, an anonymous 911 caller identified the vehicle and its license plate number. Police tracked the car to the home of the defendant’s girlfriend, the owner of the vehicle, where the defendant was arrested.
Defense counsel Tony Garcia focused his closing remarks on inconsistencies in the state’s case. Agreeing that the shooting was horrific, he argued that the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was the one guilty of the crime.
He argued that there was no clear video evidence of the defendant at the scene of the crime. Garcia said that the prosecution failed to retrieve the weapon used in the incident, and there was no scientific evidence tying his client to the crime. He argued that they failed to establish a motive claiming the witness was not honest about his relationship with the defendant, and took nearly nine months to identify his client as the one responsible.
