Counsel Spar Over Witness Reliability in 2022 South Loudon Avenue Murder Trial

By Racquel Bazos - January 25, 2024
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

On Jan. 23, the jury heard closing arguments in the murder trial of a 30-year-old Baltimore County man accused of killing a driver while hitch-hiking to his girlfriend’s house in 2022. 

Dana Davenport is charged with first-degree murder, firearm use in a felony violent crime, having a handgun in a vehicle and on his person and illegal possession of a regulated firearm in connection to the June 2022 death of 37-year-old Tyrone Walker.

“Tyrone Walker was executed,” the prosecutor began her closing argument before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer. She explained Davenport and an unidentified co-suspect fired on Walker as he drove them in his car as a “hack.” She said the defendant and co-suspect stood over Walker and continued to fire on him even as he was on the ground.

Though there was no video of the shooting itself, the defendant identified himself walking in the vicinity of the shooting on surveillance footage to police. The prosecutor said that the defendant didn’t know any details about his day or the driver in an interview with Baltimore Police Department investigators, but “s[ang] like a canary” on the stand Thursday. 

She claimed Davenport changed his tune after hearing testimony from a witness and co-passenger. 

Defense attorney Marci Johnson countered this claim by explaining that police interrogators wouldn’t tell Davenport what he was being charged with until after he waived his Miranda rights. Davenport thought he was being arrested for MTA fare evasion, but would not cooperate with investigators once they accused him of murder, which was “absolutely his right,” said Johnson.

Johnson said the only thing the prosecution could prove was that Davenport was in the car June 5, 2022. She pointed to the lack of ballistic evidence and DNA evidence linking her client to the murder, maintaining her client was simply a passenger in the vehicle before Walker’s death. 

She said police effectively stopped investigating the murder after their interview with the co-passenger who testified in court, despite admitting that his story “evolved” throughout his questioning.

According to documents from the District Court of Maryland, police and medics responded to the 200 block of South Loudon Avenue at 8:32 p.m., where Walker was suffering from gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Despite medical intervention at University of Maryland Shock Trauma, Walker succumbed to his injuries less than an hour later.