Homicide Defendant Not Capable of Sister’s Murder, Defense Says

By Andrew Michaels , Alyssia Davis [former] - January 6, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

After a three-day murder trial, the prosecutor told the jury that all signs point to defendant Cornelius Hayes as the suspect who shot and killed his sister, Lezatte Jackson, in November 2020.

Defense attorney Natalie Finegar argued on Jan. 5 that the prosecution could not prove first-degree murder—a charge against Hayes that was later dismissed. A day later, Hayes was found not guilty of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, with no verdicts rendered for the weapons charges.

During her closing arguments Thursday afternoon, the prosecutor reminded the jury of a few important details allegedly linking Hayes to Jackson’s murder on Nov. 21, 2020, on the 1200 block of N. Woodyear Street. An investigation by the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) found that there were no signs of forced entry into the locked residence, with the only keys belonging to the defendant and the victim.

Hayes was also the person to find Jackson unresponsive and claimed that he slept through the gunshots.

Hayes fired a gun from another room into the bathroom wall because he knew where the victim was hiding, the prosecutor noted.

Finegar countered that the prosecution had “nothing close to beyond a reasonable doubt” in proving her client’s guilt, adding that the medical examiner and Baltimore Police contradicted themselves on the trajectory of the bullet. In response to Hayes not hearing the gunshots, the defense attorney said that it was possible as several TVs were on at loud volumes inside the home.

The defendant was simply not capable of staging this incident, she said.