Thank you for reading Baltimore Witness.
Help us continue our mission into 2025 by donating to our end of year campaign.
By
Andrew Michaels
- December 5, 2024
Court
|
Daily Stories
|
Homicides
|
Shooting
|
Suspects
|
Victims
|
Despite an unrecovered murder weapon, a Baltimore City prosecutor argued on Dec. 2 that 35-year-old Lenora Alston was shot and killed by defendant Reginald Peay III with the victim’s legally-owned handgun outside her mother’s home earlier this year.
Alston was “gunned down brutally and senselessly” shortly after 2:15 a.m. on March 15, the prosecutor said. Evidence will show the 31-year-old defendant was responsible for the fatal shooting that occurred inside his white Chevy Malibu.
Peay has since been charged with first-degree murder, firearm use in a felony or violent crime, firearm possession with a felony conviction, having a loaded handgun on his person and in his vehicle and possessing a stolen firearm.
“We know that [Alston] was murdered by somebody that she trusted, somebody she trusted to meet her at her mother’s house,” the prosecutor said, adding that the alleged shooter texted the victim when he arrived as well as the type of vehicle he was driving.
Video footage is expected to show Alston’s attempt to get out of the vehicle before she was shot six times, including a close-range shot to her face. Detectives with the Baltimore Police Department did not find the gun at the crime scene, but learned that Alston had a concealed carry permit for her job in security.
The prosecutor explained that Peay allegedly sped off after the shooting. Police were about to track his vehicle and obtain his cell phone number through the victim’s phone. He was arrested 13 hours later and reportedly found in possession of the cell phone that texted Alston and the keys to the Malibu.
The prosecutor noted that an analysis of the phone showed it was in the area of the crime scene at the time of the shooting.
“Mr. Peay did not have a choice that evening,” said defense attorney Natalie Finegar during her opening statement. Instead, Finegar said, her client acted in self-defense.
Defense counsel said it was not Alston’s death that was in question, but actually why she was shot. Alston was shot with her own gun after she took it out, Finegar concluded.
Peay’s trial proceeded Monday afternoon before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Alan C. Lazerow and is expected to continue on Dec. 3.