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By
Andrew Michaels
- September 25, 2024
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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At the start of trial on Sept. 16, defense counsel Marci Johnson was adamant that it was not her client, James Jenkins III, who killed 31-year-old Phillip Wallace. Instead, Johnson accused another man, Aamir Benton, for Wallace’s murder, saying Benton shot the victim multiple times in a parked car in the parking lot of Pimlico Elementary School.
Jenkins currently stands trial for two counts of first-degree murder as well as four weapons charges in connection to the fatal shooting outside the elementary school on the 4800 block of Pimlico Road on June 30, 2022. The trial began Monday afternoon before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Cynthia H. Jones.
Benton is scheduled for a jury trial before Judge Melissa M. Phinn on Oct. 21, according to the Maryland Judiciary website.
During opening statements, the prosecutor told jurors that Baltimore Police found Wallace’s body around 11 p.m. in a car, which had a window blown out. Wallace was shot multiple times in his head and suffered one shot to his arm.
Video surveillance footage will take the jury “forward and backward in time,” the prosecutor explained, showing Jenkins, Benton and Wallace at the nearby Big Bro Mini Mart before the shooting. Video evidence, say prosecutors, will also show the three men leave the mini mart for the elementary school parking lot followed by a flash and glass breaking. Benton and Jenkins then get out of the car and walk back to the mini mart, where the prosecutor said Jenkins appears “disheveled.”
Police later released a still of one of the suspects from the video, which was later identified as Jenkins by his grandmother. The prosecutor said Jenkins’ grandmother contacted police and told them she asked her grandson what was happening, but that he disconnected the phone.
Although the prosecutor said Benton was likely the shooter, he argued that Jenkins conspired with Benton to commit the murder.
Johnson argued that Jenkins looked “petrified” when he and Benton returned to the mini mart, adding that the defendant had to “crawl” out of the car after the shooting. Defense counsel noted that Benton returned to the car later that evening to retrieve something he left behind.
“Mr. Jenkins didn’t go back,” she said. “He was afraid. …This was all Aamir Benton’s doing.”
The trial proceeded with testimony Monday afternoon.