Jurors Left to Determine Whether Homicide Defendant’s Confession Is Real or Coerced

By Brooke Uzzell [former] - April 11, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

Witness testimony ended on April 6 as closing arguments and jury deliberation began for a homicide defendant’s trial.

Andre Preston, 50, is charged with first-degree murder, using of a firearm during a violent crime and possession of a firearm with a felony conviction in connection to an incident that occurred on May 13, 2021. 

Without the jury present, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jeannie J. Hong listened as John E. Cox, Preston’s defense attorney, voiced his concerns about a 15-minute gap of video evidence missing in discovery that was finally produced in court by the prosecutor on Thursday.

During the trial, the prosecution exhibited two clips to jurors; one clip showed a suspect in a black jacket and blue medical mask walking through the area moments before the murder while the other clip showed the same suspect committing the murder. The 15-minute gap showed the suspect walking in and out of the view of one of the street cameras from the day of the incident. 

Cox said he believes the missing 15 minutes, if presented by the prosecution, would be unfair to his client. He said he worried about what jurors may think. Cox argued that the prosecutor should not have the opportunity to fix their mistake of not providing the entire clip into discovery.

The prosecution said there was no discovery violation by not handing over the complete video evidence, citing that there is nothing inculpatory or exculpatory about the defendant in the clip. When asked by Judge Hong if he had reviewed the missing 15-minutes of video footage, the prosecutor said he did not. 

Judge Hong made two rulings based on the dispute. First, the prosecutor is not allowed to present the missing 15-minute clip to the jury. Second, Judge Hong ruled that the video is inculpatory, but not exculpatory because if the video is presented to the jury, it would be prejudicial against the defendant. 

Following Judge Hong’s ruling, Cox continued his cross-examination of the prosecutions last witness, a Baltimore City Police Department detective who interrogated Preston the day he was arrested for the murder of 30-year-old Gary Wilson. 

During Cox’s cross-examination, he questioned the detective about the defendant’s medical condition and his ability to read, write, and comprehend.

Cox told jurors that Preston was not administered his diabetes medication until he made his statement to detectives, which was five hours after his arrest. Video from the interrogation of Preston on the day of his arrest shows him having difficulties signing off on his Miranda rights without an attorney present. 

Cox also made it clear that Preston struggles with misspelling words, addressing an eyewitness from the video recovered from the day of the incident that was identified as only “Bushy Head” by Preston. When detectives asked Preston to identify this individual by writing his name down on an image, Preston spelled “Bushy Head” like “Buchy Haed,” according to evidence exhibited in court by Cox. 

Continuing his cross-examination, Cox asked about the detective’s procedures in this case. There was no search and seizure warrant executed to search for the coat that Preston allegedly wore on the day of the incident, according to the detective’s testimony.

Five shell casings and an iced tea bottle were recovered from the scene, but there was no DNA analysis performed on either piece of evidence. Additionally, the iced tea bottle was processed for latent fingerprints, but the results of that analysis lead to an unknown individual. 

Cox questioned if the detective actually spoke with detectives on the case about other possible suspects.

The detective testified that there was another person of interest during his year-long investigation.

On social media, law enforcement was sent a picture of a possible suspect directly from the suspect’s Facebook page. Cox revealed to jurors that the person of interest, Tayvon Scott, was murdered just a month ago. When asked if he had known that Scott was killed or if he had any involvement with the investigators in that case, the detective testified no to both. 

During a thorough rebuttal by the prosecution, the detective walked jurors through how he obtained the two FBI video clips that were recovered from the day of the incident. After reviewing the clips with an agent, the detective said he received only two clips on May 19, 2021, six days after the murder. The detective said he requested the full video from the day of the incident on that day, but the FBI said it would take a much longer time to extract, according to his testimony. 

Preston’s ex-wife was the prosecution’s last witness. She testified to jurors about how she handled the bills while they were together, noting that there were occasions when Preston asked for help when he struggled with comprehending. 

“He felt more freely to ask me, than to ask someone from the outside,” she told the jury.

In addition, she testified that she is aware that Preston takes medicine for his diabetes, and that sometimes he experiences a ‘brain fog’, or a form of confusion, if he goes without his medication. 

Preston’s ex-wife testified that Preston was in a minor car accident just last year after failing to take his medication. When she arrived at the scene of the car accident, she told jurors about how he was not able to walk or express himself. “He was slumped at the wheel, and he sounded tongue-tied as he tried to speak,” she said.

During closing statements, the prosecutor addressed Preston’s difficulties with writing and comprehending, saying Preston knew exactly what he was doing on the day of the incident. He did not suffer from a brain fog during his interrogation with detectives as implied by the defense’s argument, the prosecutor said.

“Andre Preston, that is him on the screen killing Gary Wilson,” the prosecutor emphasized to jurors during his closing arguments. 

Going against the defense’s claims, the prosecution tells the jury that Preston was able to read his rights without an issue, including how he admitted to detectives that he was in the area at the time of the shooting, and he heard shots but could not say how many. 

Describing how Cox will form his closing arguments, the prosecution brings up the conflict regarding the 15-minute gap in video evidence that was missing from discovery. 

“[Cox] may reference the missing video in his closing arguments, but what about these videos that are already here? This is footage of the crime right here, not what happened before. The evidence is clear, Andre Preston used a regulated firearm to kill Gary Wilson,” the prosecution said.

“As [the prosecutor] spoke, I thought of the phrase, ‘you can’t eat your cake and have it too’,” says Cox as he began his closing arguments. Cox told the jury about how there are people being exonerated years later because of DNA evidence, implying to the jury that this unfortunately could happen to his client. 

Cox addresses the evidence presented by the prosecutor as not being enough to convict Preston. He says that detectives essentially pulled the wool over Preston’s eyes by administering misleading images and coercing him to mistakenly identify himself in one of the photos. 

Cox reminds jurors that during Preston’s ex-wife’s testimony, she testified that the photo in which Preston identified himself does not appear to actually be him. Cox also tells jurors that the suspect in the video looks like he is bald, his client, Preston, is not bald. 

Cox criticized the prosecution, Baltimore City Police Department, and FBI for not working hard enough to identify the individual known as “Bushy Head.”

“If you take away my client’s statement, there is 0 evidence,” Cox expressed to the jurors, “Better to let 100 people go that shouldn’t have been allowed to go, than to let one be convicted for something that they did not do.”

“Why would [Preston] identify himself if he couldn’t,” the prosecutor asked the jury. “He didn’t say I’m not sure. He didn’t say I don’t think so. He said, that’s me!”

The prosecutor tells the jury to re-watch the video of the interrogation from the day of Preston’s arrest to see that he was not coerced into a confession. 

As the defense and prosecution both rested their cases, a stipulation was entered, making it known to jurors that Preston is prohibited from having a regulated firearm in relation to a previous disqualifying conviction.

According to court documents, Baltimore City Police Department officers responded to the 3000 block of Normount Court for reports of a shooting. When officers arrived at the scene, they found Wilson suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. 

He was transported to an area hospital where he later died.