Jury Returns Not Guilty Verdict in Attempted Murder Trial

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A 36-year-old Baltimore man was found not guilty of attempted murder on Nov. 23 in connection to a shooting outside a Baltimore City jail last year.

After a two-day trial, a jury found Tavian Fleming guilty of illegal possession of a firearm. Fleming was facing additional charges of attempted first and second-degree murder and assault, among other weapons charges.

On Nov. 28, the prosecution and Fleming’s defense attorney, Jeremy Eldridge, agreed to place a separate firearms case against the defendant on the STET docket given his latest conviction. However, the prosecution said it would reopen the case should the defense successfully appeal the aforementioned conviction.

A business rivalry was behind the shooting, according to court documents that state the defendant and the victim knew one another before the incident that occurred shortly after 6 p.m., on July 18, 2021, on the 300 block of E. Eager Street. Fleming allegedly threatened the victim a week before the shooting.

Charging documents state that the victim was selling vehicles at work and moving a gray Acura TL at the corner of North Gay and Orleans streets when he saw Fleming in a white pickup truck. The victim feared for his safety and drove away as Fleming followed. When the victim stopped his vehicle outside the Central Booking Intake Facility on E. Eager Street, Fleming allegedly fired a handgun three times and then drove away.

The victim, who was not shot, went back to work after the shooting before alerting Baltimore Police, and Fleming was arrested later that day.