Closing Statements for Defendant Charged With Vehicular Manslaughter

By Destiny Rodriguez [former] - February 26, 2024
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects | Traffic | Victims |

On Feb. 23, a 34-year-old appeared in court before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Dana M. Middleton for vehicular manslaughter.

Shawn Lee Brunson is charged with vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent vehicular manslaughter, theft between $1,500 and $25,000, unauthorized removal of a motor vehicle and driving a car without a license.

As the assistant state’s attorney showed images of the person driving the car, she pointed out the driver’s yellow shirt. “Yellow is a color that says ‘see me, notice me.’” The prosecutor kept reiterating this statement as she wanted to make it clear that Brunson was the one wearing yellow and driving the car.

Defense attorney Gregory Fischer countered this notion by explaining that the color yellow is not seen in every shot of surveillance footage and that it is a “mere reflection off of the light on the windshield.” Fisher also explained that this case was nothing but a “slack and sloppy police investigation” due to crime scene technicians not gathering DNA, especially not swabbing the airbags.

The assistant state’s attorney said there was no need for DNA testing because of the amount of vehicle and building debris on the crime scene. 

Deliberations are expected to begin on Feb. 26.

According to court documents, on Feb. 8, 2023, Brunson was driving a stolen Hyundai Sonata as the Baltimore Police Department  started to pursue him. Brunson allegedlycrashed into a Mitsubishi on the 1900 block of East North Avenue, causing the vehicle to rotate and land on the sidewalk. The impact caused a collapse of a building. The vehicle ran into a pedestrian, 54-year-old Alfred Fincher, who was pronounced dead on the scene.