A 23-year-old homicide defendant’s trial was postponed before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa K. Copeland due to the prosecutor’s illness and evidence issues.
Gerson Diaz-Arita is charged with first-degree murder, firearm use in a felony violent crime, reckless endangerment and having a loaded handgun in a vehicle for an Oct. 26, 2022, incident that ended in the murder of 39-year-old David Rodriguez Ramirez.
Diaz-Arita’s attorney, Stephen Beatty, stated in front of Judge Anthony F. Vittoria that the assistant state’s attorney was ill and unable to attend Thursday’s scheduled trial in person. Judge Vittoria moved the case to reception court before Judge Copeland, where the assistant state’s attorney attended via Zoom.
According to Beatty, the trial is likely to commence in October. The assistant state’s attorney stated that aside from her health, there were technical difficulties with evidence which necessitated the trial’s postponement. The defense added that along with technical issues, there was late disclosure of evidence, some of which he had only received a week ago.
Judge Copeland determined that the case was not ready for her to proceed, and will be meeting with counsel electronically July 1 to determine a trial date.
Baltimore Police Department officers arrested Diaz-Arita in November 2023 after Rodriguez Ramirez’s murder on the 3300 block of Annapolis Road.
