Defense Claims Lead Detective Had ‘Blinders On’ In 2024 Homicide Investigation

By Jasmine Milbourne , Mark McNeill - July 2, 2025
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

Defense attorney Martin Cohen argued that the lead Baltimore Police detective approached investigations with “blinders on” and a bias against defendant Damion Thomas, 45, while investigating his alleged involvement in a murder on S. Paca Street last year.

After 40 minutes of deliberations, the jury acquitted Thomas of first-degree murder, having a handgun in a vehicle and on his person and firearm possession with a felony conviction on July 2. There was no verdict rendered for firearm use in a felony or violent crime.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Michael A. DiPietro presided over the three-day trial.

Charges against Thomas stemmed from the shooting and killing 37-year-old Brian Nesbitt on Aug. 21, 2024, on the 800 Block of S. Paca Street. During closing arguments, Cohen argued the prosecution failed to meet their burden of proof. 

“There is no eyewitness. No DNA. No forensics,” Cohen told the jury. “The [prosecution] proved that Mr. Nesbitt was murdered with a gun, but not that Mr. Thomas was the one who did it.”

The prosecution acknowledged that their case relied on circumstantial evidence, but argued it was both substantial and compelling. They pointed to surveillance footage and cellphone records showing Thomas’s mobile device and vehicle traveling through various parts of the city, including near the scene of the shooting. 

The prosecution said Nesbitt was shot three times in broad daylight and that the trajectory of the bullets support the theory he was shot by someone taller than him, such as Thomas. They argued that the defense was trying to deflect from the situation and that the jury needed to “put the evidence together.”

Cohen claimed that the prosecution lacked evidence to convict Thomas of murder based on the pixelated video footage presented during testimony. The defense told the jury that a man’s life hangs in the balance of “shadows and pixels,” with no eyewitnesses or discernible motive. 

Cohen noted that the gun used in this incident was never found, and that the responding officers did not investigate for ballistic residue. The victim and defendant did not seem to have a prior relationship either, he said.

Throughout the trial, the prosecution leaned on digital evidence to connect Thomas to the crime, while the defense maintained that the lack of physical evidence raised reasonable doubt.