Counsel delivered closing arguments in the trial of Reginald Raysor on Jan. 20, debating the defendant’s guilt in the fatal shooting of 59-year-old Reginald Bernard Harrod, which occurred last September and left the victim bleeding out in the streets of Northeast Baltimore.
The end of Raysor’s trial followed a week of testimony before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Yolanda A. Tanner. On Jan. 13, the 33-year-old defendant had pleaded not guilty to all charges, including first-degree murder, armed robbery, use of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime and possessing a firearm despite a previous disqualifying conviction.
During proceedings, the state’s attorney described how on Sept. 14, 2024, Raysor’s attempt to rob Harrod at gunpoint ended in a single fatal gunshot on the 1100 block of Springfield Avenue. Harrod had been sitting in his parked pickup truck listening to music when he was “approached by an unknown stranger who demanded his property, and he died for it,” the state’s attorney said.
Meanwhile, defense attorney Jerry Rodriguez criticized the state’s investigative procedures, claiming police treated the case “more like a nuisance” and said they “couldn’t be bothered” to further investigate potential leads that may have revealed additional suspects in Harrod’s death. He accused detectives of neglecting to obtain critical warrants or subpoenas, and condemned their failure to dust both Harrod’s property and the .40-caliber shell casing recovered from the scene for additional fingerprints.
The day after Harrod’s murder, a Baltimore Police lieutenant entered Bella Roma’s pizza shop on the 1100 block of Washington Boulevard to conduct a lawful stop on Raysor, who was allegedly found in possession of a Springfield XD 40 .40-caliber pistol that he kept stored inside a black Lacoste shoulder bag he wore across his body. Three DNA samples were found on the pistol and four on the bag, but Rodriguez said investigators failed to follow up on these contributors.
“We’re left with speculation and conjecture about what happened that night,” he continued.
The state’s attorney pushed back, pointing to testimony from a firearms expert who had said on the stand that heat from firing bullets is known to destroy biological material on casings, and emphasized that 68 percent of the DNA located on the recovered pistol belonged to Raysor – “a supermajority.”
“If it walks like a dog and talks like a dog, it’s most likely a dog,” he told jurors.
Cell site location data obtained from Raysor’s white iPhone also placed the defendant in the area of Harrod’s death around the time of the shooting, and the recovered data indicated that the phone was powered off between 10:41 p.m. and 12:03 a.m. that night. Harrod was shot shortly after 11 p.m. and pronounced deceased minutes before midnight.
Rodriguez pinned the period of inactivity on the phone’s age, calling it “raggedy” and rebuffing the state’s position that Raysor turned it off as part of “some ominous scheme.” Raysor had been using either a seventh or eighth generation iPhone at the time, he told jurors.
Jurors are currently deliberating Raysor’s charges.
