Homicide Defendant’s Girlfriend Dodges Questions on the Stand

By Andrew Michaels - November 15, 2021
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

The girlfriend of a homicide defendant accused of killing her cousin repeatedly dodged questions from the prosecution and defense counsel during her testimony on Nov. 12.

Jimmy Gerold McRavin, 24, was charged in connection to the shooting of James Thompson around 1 p.m. on the 200 block of Herring Court on Oct. 12, 2019.

During the first day of trial before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry G. Williams, McRavin’s girlfriend was uncooperative with counsel’s questioning, frequently describing the defendant as “nobody,” despite the prosecution saying that he is the father of her child. It wasn’t until defense attorney Julie Shapiro played the body camera footage from officers with the Baltimore Police Department that the jury heard what happened that day.

In the video, the defendant’s girlfriend told officers that she was arguing with McRavin because he was smoking while holding their baby.

Shapiro then questioned the events of Oct. 12, 2019, alleging that McRavin’s girlfriend called her cousin to come over and physically fight the defendant. The woman responded that she did not know her cousin was coming to their home, where he was later shot.

The defense attorney also said McRavin’s girlfriend went through her cousin’s pockets after the shooting, but she testified that she didn’t know what she was looking to find.

Witness testimony continued last week with a neighbor and friend of the defendant’s mother who lived across the street. The woman told counsel that she was on her porch with some girlfriends when she heard gunfire and then saw a “dude on the ground dead” outside McRavin’s mother’s home.

The neighbor said she had seen the victim walking to McRavin’s home prior to the shooting.

Despite her initial confusion on the stand as to what she told police, Shapiro showed the woman her interview with officers when she said she saw McRavin shoot the victim on the front steps of his mother’s home.

McRavin’s trial continued on Nov. 15.