Partial Guilty Verdict Rendered in Non-Fatal Shooting Case

By Sarah Mullen - March 22, 2024
Court | Daily Stories | Non-Fatal Shooting | Suspects |

On March 13 the jury deliberating the case of 37-year-old Marcel Holt found him guilty of only two offenses out of the eight original charges.

Holt was found guilty of possessing a firearm with a felony conviction and illegally possessing ammunition. Nevertheless, he was found not guilty of having a loaded handgun on his person, having a handgun on his person, firing and discharging a gun in Baltimore City and having a gun within 100 years of a public place. Two counts of illegal possession of a firearm were dismissed. 

On the night of Aug. 28, 2023, the Baltimore Police Department’s ShotSpotter gun detection service picked up sounds of what the prosecutor claimed was gunfire.

The system directed officers to the defendant’s home on the 700 block of North Collington Avenue, where they questioned Holt, who apparently “acted extremely nervous and suspicious” while attributing the noise to a firecracker.

Officers received a search warrant to investigate the contents of a backpack that they witnessed Holt ditch inside his house shortly before speaking with them. The search yielded a handgun that allegedly matched a shell casing discovered outside the house. 

During closing arguments on March 13, Jeremy Eldridge defended his client by identifying an apparent inconsistency between one police officer’s testimony and surveillance video which supported Eldridge’s theory that the officers who questioned Holt may have exaggerated the extent of Holt’s “suspicious behaviors.”

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Dana M. Middleton sentenced Holt to five years for firearm possession with a felony conviction and a consecutive year for illegal possession of ammunition.