Judge Reduces Sentence Shooter after Trial Counsel Failed to Use ‘Airtight Electronic Alibi’

By Andrew Michaels - April 12, 2023
Attempted Murder | Court | Daily Stories | Non-Fatal Shooting | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

A Baltimore City Circuit Court judge significantly reduced the life sentence of Lamont Davis after his defense team argued trial counsel’s failure to present Davis’ “airtight electronic alibi” to the jury in 2009 in connection to a shooting that paralyzed a five-year-old girl.

On April 11, defense attorneys Ian Herbert, Alexandra Prime, Addy Schmitt, Jesse Schwab, and Andrew Wise gathered around the 30-year-old defendant inside Judge Lynn Stewart Mays’ courtroom to argue a motion to modify Davis’ sentence of life plus 30 years for attempted first and second-degree murder charges and weapons charges.

Wise, of Washington, D.C.’s Miller & Chevalier law firm, informed Judge Mays that Davis’ former counsel did not use GPS evidence in trial that could have proven the defendant’s innocence. This evidence placed Davis inside his home on house arrest instead of at the scene of the crime at the corner of South Pulaski and Wilhelm streets.

Davis’ trial counsel could have presented “compelling evidence to the jury,” Wise said, but “undercut” the GPS evidence.

One of the two prosecutors in the courtroom said she spent “countless hours” reviewing this case but was unable to discern why trial counsel would have abandoned this alibi.

Judge Mays ruled to vacate Davis’ sentence of life and a concurrent 20 years for attempted first-degree murder and firearm use in a felony violent crime in one of the defendant’s cases. The judge then sentenced Davis to 10 years, suspending all but five years, the first five years without parole, and five years of supervised probation for firearm use in a felony violent crime.

Davis’ charge of having a handgun on his person was also merged with his attempted second-degree murder charge in his second case.

For his attempted second-degree murder charge in his second case, Judge Mays modified his sentence to 30 years, suspending all but 12 and a half years, making it consecutive to his firearm use in a felony violent crime charge in his other case. 

Davis will now serve 40 years, suspending all but 17 and a half years, the first five years without parole, and five years of supervised probation. This sentence dates back to July 4, 2009.

Judge Mays scheduled the defendant to return to court on May 12 to put the sentence on the record.