Trial concluded on Feb. 6 for a 28-year-old defendant facing murder, assault and gun charges in connection to the shooting death of a 43-year-old man on Garrison Boulevard nearly two years ago.
Jurors must now decide if Timothy Knott shot and killed Anthony Pearson on the 4700 block of Garrison Boulevard during the morning of April 29, 2024. Pearson and Knott reportedly knew each other prior to the incident. According to Knott’s family, Pearson had been a suspect in the death of Knott’s cousin in 2022, but the case went cold.
“This case is a classic example of premeditation,” the state’s attorney told jurors.
She argued that three key points of evidence pointed to Knott’s guilt – surveillance footage from a building near the scene that captured the incident, the defendant’s taped statement to detectives, and cellphone location records that placed Knott at the scene of Pearson’s death. Shortly after the shooting occurred, eyewitnesses to the incident were seen departing the scene to alert authorities, said the state’s attorney.
An FBI special agent who analyzed Knott’s cellphone records confirmed Knott made several calls before and after the homicide, with two occurring just minutes before he shot Pearson.
Warren Brown, Knott’s defense attorney said Knott was “young, hungry, freezing and uneducated,” claiming investigators saw the defendant as “easy pickings” and referred to him as “a m*therf*cker.”
Brown argued Knott was “not all the way there” when speaking to detectives, telling jurors the defendant wasn’t able to verify his own address. He instructed jurors not to base their verdict on suspicion.
The state’s attorney countered that Knott was cognizant and had been trying to evade law enforcement by providing officers with incorrect addresses.
Knott now awaits a verdict, which will be delivered before Judge Robert K. Taylor.
