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By
Kris Su [former]
- March 3, 2024
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During opening statements on Feb. 21 before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Dana M. Middleton, Shawn Lee Brunson, 34, appeared for a vehicular manslaughter incident occurring on Feb. 8, 2023.
Brunson is charged with vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent vehicular manslaughter, unauthorized removal of vehicle, theft valued between $1,500 and $25,000 and driving without license in an incident that collapsed a building and killed a pedestrian.
The assistant state’s attorney said the prosecution had video evidence of Brunson allegedly in a stolen vehicle speeding through a red light without putting on the brakes.
Surveillance footage from the scene contained step-by-step video of the collision taking place as the car sped into oncoming traffic, then struck the victim.
The prosecution said the death of the 54-year-old Alfred Fincher was a result of Brunson’s actions when he decided to drive recklessly.
To counter the defense’s mistaken identity theory, the prosecutor said the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) got a report the suspect vehicle was stolen the day before the incident, so the jury could conclude the owner of the car was not driving at the time of the accident.
Defense attorney Gregory Fischer disputed Brunson was the driver in the crash and argued his client was “a victim of an inexcusably sloppy police investigation.”
The prosecution, said Fischer, had no evidence that showed Brunson was driving the car at the time, though police could have collected fingerprints from the steering wheel or DNA from the driver’s seat. The surveillance footage he said was inconclusive.
According to court documents, BPD was pursuing Brunson in a stolen Hyundai Sonata. At the intersection of East North Avenue and Wolfe Street, the Hyundai hit another vehicle. The crashed car ran onto a row house and a pedestrian. The building fell apart, and Fincher was pronounced dead on scene.