Acquitted: Motion to Suppress Photo Lineup Denied in 2018 Homicide

By Carly Schiller [former] - July 20, 2021
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides |

Editor’s note: The defendant was acquitted of charges in this case. 

A motion to suppress an identification from a photo array was denied by Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Yvette M. Bryant on July 19. 

A motion to suppress DNA evidence was also heard during the hearing, but the decision has yet to be made. 

Baltimore resident William Andrew Wright, 33, allegedly shot and killed 43-year-old Gregory Cason on Sept. 11, 2018, on the 2900 block of E. Monument Street.

During the hearing on Monday, assistant public defender Shannon Heery motioned to suppress a witness’s identification of Wright in a photo array. The witness, who was the mother of the victim’s child, said she lived in the same neighborhood as Wright for two years prior to the shooting and knew him.

Heery questioned the witness about a photo array she was presented by a Baltimore Police detective on Sept. 19, 2018. The witness identified Wright as the shooter from the photo array; however, Heery disputed the validity of the array, noting that the witness easily identified Wright because he was already a familiar face. 

Additionally, Heery showed that the other people in the photos looked too different from Wright, which made him stand out. According to Heery, people in photo arrays are supposed to look more similar to one another than what was originally presented to the witness. 

The prosecution disagreed, saying the photo array was not suggestive of anyone, and the witness was able to easily identify Wright because he is the man who she saw kill Cason. 

Judge Bryant said the photo array was acceptable and denied the motion.

The defense also made a motion to suppress DNA evidence. 

On March 5, 2019, the Baltimore Police Department Crime Laboratory analyzed a DNA sample but found the results inconclusive. On July 8, 2019, a second DNA analysis was completed, which matched Wright’s DNA.

As part of the motion to suppress DNA evidence, the defense called an independent DNA analyst to testify followed by the prosecution who called a BPD Crime Lab DNA analyst.

The independent analyst said the DNA sample is clearly from at least two people and that there was not enough DNA to create a full profile. Meanwhile the BPD analyst argued the software was effective and helped match Wright’s DNA.

Heery asked the judge for two weeks to complete and submit her closing arguments in writing. Judge Bryant gave Heery until Aug. 2 to send in her argument, while giving the prosecution until Aug. 16.