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By
Racquel Bazos [former]
- August 14, 2023
Court
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Daily Stories
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Homicides
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Shooting
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Suspects
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Victims
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In his opening statement before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Althea M. Handy on Aug. 14, defense attorney Roland Harris disputed whether surveillance footage showed his client walking to the scene of 22-year-old Joshua Whittington’s murder.
Because the person in the video was wearing a mask, Harris questioned how the prosecution could identify his client, Tavon Jamal Green, Jr., as the perpetrator. Harris’ theory of the case suggested that Whittington was a drug dealer caught in a turf dispute and that one of the prosecution’s witnesses was Whitington’s partner, who exchanged questionable information for a better plea deal.
The prosecutor assigned to the case explained that investigators identified Green, 23, as the suspect because of his distinctive clothing shown in the video. Green’s girlfriend, the mother of Whittington’s child, confirmed it was Green as well. Surveillance footage captured the entire incident, the prosecutor said, beginning with the two men exchanging words and ending when Green allegedly shot Whittington three times.
Green is charged with first-degree murder, use of a handgun in committing a crime and having a handgun on his person in connection to the April 1, 2022 incident that occurred on the unit block of S. Carey Street outside of a New York Fried Chicken restaurant.
The prosecutor said that the disagreement between Green and Whittington began because Whittington thought Green drove too recklessly with his child in the car.
Before jury selection began, Green rejected a plea offer for life, suspending all but 45 years, with five years of supervised probation for first-degree murder and a concurrent 15 years, the first five without the possibility of parole, for use of a handgun in committing a crime.
The trial is expected to last two more days.