Diamante Teal, 29, was convicted of multiple charges on May 11, one day after counsel rested their cases before a jury and Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Dana M. Middleton.
Teal was found guilty of first-degree murder and assault, armed robbery, firearm use in a felony crime, and conspiracy. He was represented by defense attorney Jason Rodriguez at trial.
The charges stemmed from two 2019 incidents involving Teal and co-defendants 27-year-old Phillip Morton and 26-year-old William Andre Stewart III. Prosecutors accused the three men of committing an armed robbery at Baltimore’s Best Wings near Morgan State University and later carrying out a shooting at Subway restaurant on the 5600 block of the Alameda.
The Subway shooting, which occurred on June 17, 2019, resulted in the death of 16-year-old Travis Chance and left two women injured. During the trial, prosecutors said Chance entered the restaurant seeking cover before gunfire erupted inside the business. Investigators recovered multiple shell casings from the scene.
Teal was also found guilty on two counts of first-degree assault and one count of firearm use for the shooting at Baltimore’s Best Wings, which occurred on July 11, 2019.
During closing arguments on May 8, prosecutors argued that recovered surveillance footage, cellphone records, Teal’s interview with police, social media evidence and other investigative findings connected the defendant to the crimes.
Rodgriguez challenged the state’s evidence, arguing that Teal was not one of the involved suspects. He pointed out investigators failed to recover Teal’s DNA from the interior of the Buick Verano the suspects used to arrive at both locations, and suggested investigators misidentified another man as Teal.
Nonetheless, Teal was found guilty of most charges.
He is scheduled for sentencing in an Aug. 8 disposition hearing before Judge Middleton.
