Following a retrial that ran three days beyond its allotted schedule, 19-year-old defendant Daaon Spears was acquitted of all 31 counts he was charged with in connection to a strip mall mass shooting that occurred shortly after New Year’s in 2023.
Jurors reached their verdict on Feb. 27, the day after the state presented a closing argument that attempted to draw the focus to a masked suspect with a distinctive gait. While the state’s attorney maintained that unique clothing and a distinguishable manner of walking removed any doubt the suspect was Spears, jurors ultimately sided with the defense’s claim that the evidence was insufficient to incriminate the teenaged defendant.
Spears will walk free nearly one-and-a-half years after his original trial ended with a hung jury on Oct. 24, 2024. At the time, jurors had failed to reach a unanimous verdict.
The incident, which occurred the afternoon of Jan. 4, 2024 outside a Popeyes restaurant in the Edmondson Village Shopping Center, left four high school students injured and 16-year-old Deanta Dorsey dead.
Spears was represented by criminal defense attorney Brandon Taylor throughout the trial, which was heard before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Lynn Stewart Mays.
Spears’ co-defendant and accused co-conspirator, 19-year-old Bryan Johnson, has yet to stand trial.
