Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Dana M. Middleton heard a sharply divided verdict on April 3, with jurors convicting 37-year-old Cassandra McRae of first-degree murder while acquitting 35-year-old co-defendant Tavon Singleton of all charges.
The trial centered on a Jan. 22, 2025, ambush on the 5400 block of York Road that left 52-year-old Antoinette Jennings dead following a dispute at a children’s basketball game. Two others were injured in the shooting.
The jury ultimately found McRae guilty of orchestrating the attack, which was supported by surveillance footage and audio of her signaling the shooters to fire into Jennings’ car. McRae was also convicted on charges of attempted second-degree murder, firearm use, conspiracy, and reckless endangerment, though jurors acquitted her of a few charges, including attempted first-degree murder and assault.
Meanwhile, jurors rejected the state’s case against Singleton. During closing arguments, defense attorney Daniel Mooney branded the state’s investigation “selective,” arguing that detectives “reverse-engineered a theory” while ignoring DNA from other potential suspects and failing to preserve the crime scene.
Mooney successfully challenged the state’s sole eyewitness identification, which came from a 12-year-old girl, describing it as “shaky” and “rehearsed.” He pointedly noted that the witness had seen an Instagram post featuring Singleton’s face before the trial, creating “highly suggestive circumstances” for her testimony. Furthermore, her physical description of a “short and fat” suspect wearing a tank top did not match Singleton’s build or garb at the time of the shooting.
The assistant state’s attorney dismissed the defense’s claims as “shiny distractions,” maintaining that McRae was the mastermind behind the conspiracy. While McRae now faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for murder without the possibility of parole, Singleton was cleared of all counts, including first-degree murder and reckless endangerment.
No date has been set for sentencing yet.
