Trial Begins for Man Accused of Fatally Shooting His Older Brother at Family’s Home on Gibbons Avenue

By Andrew Michaels - May 30, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

“When a man is charged with such a serious crime, isn’t it important for someone to say, ‘I saw him do it,’?”

Defense attorney Roland Brown posed this question to a 12-person jury on May 30 when his client, 22-year-old Singelton Duppins, began his jury trial for the murder of his older brother more than three years ago.

The prosecution will not have any witnesses who actually saw the shooting, Brown continued, as Duppins and the victim, Graham Blake, were the only two people in the family’s basement that evening around 11:00 p.m. on Feb. 28, 2020. No video evidence was recovered, the defendant attorney added, nor did Duppins have any motivation or motive.

During her opening statement earlier in the proceeding, the prosecutor said that three family members were upstairs at their residence on the 2500 block of Gibbons Avenue where shots rang out from the basement. When they ran downstairs, they saw Blake in a pool of his own blood with a gunshot wound to the back of the head and Duppins standing over him.

Duppins’ mother, who is expected to testify, attempted to keep her son from leaving the home, but was unsuccessful, the prosecutor said. Baltimore Police later found the defendant with the murder weapon a few miles away.

The trial proceeded with testimony Tuesday afternoon before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Kendra Ausby and is expected to resume Wednesday morning.