Acquitted: Homicide Defendant Wrongly Accused, Defense Says

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Editor’s note: The defendant was acquitted of charges in this case.

Testimony of a homicide victim’s girlfriend was questioned Nov. 4 as defense counsel argued that their client was wrongly accused of a homicide in 2018.

After nearly two days of jury selection, the trial of William Wright began Thursday afternoon in connection to the fatal shooting of 43-year-old Gregory Cason on Sept. 11, 2018, on the 2900 block of E. Monument Street.

Wright is charged with first-degree murder, firearm use in a felony violent crime, wearing and carrying a handgun, and reckless endangerment.

“There is a saying that anger builds nothing but has the potential to destroy everything,” the prosecutor said as she described the events leading to the victim’s death during her opening statements before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Yvette M. Bryant. “A punch to the face doesn’t justify a repeated shooting in this city.”

The prosecutor said the jury would hear testimony from the victim’s 32-year-old girlfriend, her mother, and the detective who investigated the incident.

Defense attorney Matthew Connell, alongside co-counsel Shannon Heery, prepared the jury for the victim’s girlfriend’s testimony during his opening statements.

“He’s not guilty. He didn’t do this. They got the wrong guy,” Connell told the jury.

The defense attorney explained that Cason’s girlfriend, who is also the mother of their 6-year-old child, lied to Baltimore Police Department officers during questioning on the night of the shooting. The lies continued over a week later, he said, when she was questioned by a detective at the police station and identified the defendant in a photo array.

Connell described Cason’s girlfriend as “a ball of fire” who was uncooperative and argumentative with police and had conflicting statements identifying the shooter. Cason, his girlfriend, and their 6-year-old son were living with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend on E. Monument Street when the shooting occurred.

The trial proceeded when the prosecution called Cason’s girlfriend to testify.

In the early afternoon on Sept. 11, 2018, Cason’s girlfriend testified, Wright, nicknamed “Money,” came over to her front doorstep to give her weed that she promised to pay for at a later date. Wright allegedly “got in her face” about getting paid back, she said, angering Cason.

Cason’s girlfriend said she knew the defendant for about two years and “had no problems with him.”

When Cason asked his girlfriend if Wright “touched her,” she said he did, and Cason allegedly punched Wright in the face. Wright ran away to his home on the adjacent N. Potomac Street, while Cason went inside his residence and his girlfriend remained on the doorstep.

The events that followed differed between the testimony of Cason’s girlfriend and evidence presented by Connell.

According to Cason’s girlfriend, the victim texted her for the next five hours, saying he was angry and felt disrespected by the defendant’s actions. Meanwhile, Cason’s girlfriend said she got into a shouting match with a longtime resident, a “neighborhood watch-type,” who lived across the street along with several others.

Wright returned shortly after 10:30 p.m., she said, and shot Cason seven times with a black revolver.

During cross-examination on Thursday, Connell questioned Cason’s girlfriend’s testimony, citing her actions and statements that were captured on police body camera footage. Connell played the footage for the jury that showed Cason’s girlfriend accusing a group of about five men across the street of shooting Cason.

“They’re the ones that did it,” she said in the video, her words echoing throughout the courtroom. “Them over there, right now.”

Connell also identified a potential shooter: a man wearing a black Vans hoodie who was seen sprinting away. Video surveillance footage from the city’s CCTV cameras captured the shooting.

Cason’s girlfriend repeatedly laughed on the stand as Connell repeated what she said to the police. The witness eventually became visibly upset with the defense attorney’s questioning and stormed out of the courtroom after Judge Bryant granted a brief recess.

When cross-examination resumed, the witness said she lied to police because her cell phone was missing and she thought the men across the street had stolen it. She also said she did not give police the defendant’s name the night of the shooting and refused to give them Cason’s name because of his outstanding warrant.

It wasn’t until her second visit to the hospital that evening when she learned of Cason’s death, she said, as she initially believed he was going to survive.

Connell also discussed officers’ attempts, or lack thereof, to interview the men across the street, as well as the warrant that was executed on Wright’s residence, where no weapon, bullets, or blood were found.

At the conclusion of her testimony, the witness told the prosecutor that she was intoxicated at the time of the shooting and became “hysterical” and “out of my mind” after seeing Cason shot.

Wright’s trial is scheduled to resume on Nov. 5.