Jury Finds Defendant Guilty of Shooting Two Men Returning Keys to Neighbor

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Jurors found a 24-year-old Baltimore man guilty of Roderick Daniels’ murder and the attempted murder of another man on Feb. 27 after the two men tried returning apartment keys to a neighbor in June 2020.

Following a four-day trial, Shae-von Edwards was found guilty of second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, and three weapons charges before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Lynn Stewart Mays.

Edwards, who has not yet been sentenced, is currently scheduled for a collateral hearing on June 9.

“The keys in the door of apartment C started a domino effect that can’t be undone,” the prosecutor told jurors, explaining that Daniels, 51, and his neighbor, 35, saw another neighbor had left her keys in her front door on the 5600 block of Haddon Avenue on June 2, 2020.

When the two men attempted to return the keys to the woman, the prosecutor said, video surveillance footage shows Edwards approaching and shouting something along the lines of, “What are you doing at my girl’s door?”

Daniels responds, “She left her keys in the door.”

“After hearing that, it should have ended there, but Mr. Edwards continued to advance” and pull out a handgun, the prosecutor said. Although the shooting occurred out of the video’s view, Edwards and Daniels are heard followed by gunshots.

The woman who left her keys in her door called Edwards, but “we don’t know why,” the prosecutor added. At least eight gunshots were fired based on Daniels’ and his neighbor’s wounds.

Reasonable doubt can be found in reviewing the video footage because of gaps in the audio, defense attorney Creston Smith countered during his closing argument. Furthermore, witnesses who allegedly identified Edwards may have been incorrect, as the incident happened when it was dark.

One witness, in particular, did not identify the defendant until years later, he noted.

“Did this person really see anything?” Smith asked the jurors. ‘“[They’ve] never been presented a photo array.”

From the defendant’s perspective, the defense attorney concluded, it may have looked like someone was breaking into the woman’s home.

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