Trial Begins in Neighborhood Parking Dispute Murder, Mass Shooting

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“Music, and a parking space, and perceived disrespect,” are what the prosecution cited as the causes of a multi-generational mass shooting that left three dead and one injured as counsel delivered opening statements in the trial of the Baltimore man accused of the crime on Aug. 12.

Marvelle Worsley, 51, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, four counts of firearm use in a felony violent crime, and single counts of having a loaded handgun on his person, having a handgun on his person and possessing a firearm with a felony conviction in connection to an April 1, 2023 shooting.

During opening statements delivered before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer’s courtroom, the prosecution established a timeline of the deadly conflict between Worsley and his next-door neighbor that began long before April 1, 2023.

Worsley’s neighbor, with whom he lived in an adjoining duplex on the 3200 block of Woodring Avenue, had complained to Worsley about how close he parked his car to hers and loud music coming from his home in the year leading up to the shooting. On the morning of April 1, 2023, the neighbor discovered that Worsley had once again parked “within inches” of her car.

The neighbor confronted Worsley about his close parking, and the interaction quickly escalated to an explicit screaming match between the pair. After another neighbor intervened, the woman with whom Worsley shared the duplex went inside and contacted her father and boyfriend for help.

Later that evening, multiple members of the neighbor’s family arrived at the duplex. The neighbor’s father knocked on Worsley’s door to confront him and was later joined by the neighbor’s boyfriend.

During the confrontation, Worsley allegedly opened fire, fatally shooting the neighbor’s father, 49-year-old Charles Murray, and her boyfriend, 41-year-old Girard Smith, as well as the neighbor’s grandmother, 69-year-old Darlene Briscoe, who was standing on the adjoining porch. The neighbor was also shot but survived.

According to the prosecution, Worsley had told his neighbor earlier that day that if she brought anyone over he would kill them.

“He had many choices that day,” said the prosecution. “The simplest one would have been to close the door. But instead he chose to gun down multiple members of a family”

Worsley’s defense attorney, Tony Garcia, presented a different perspective in his opening statement.

Garcia told the jury that during their altercation on the morning of the shooting, Worsley repeatedly asked the neighbor to get away from him, but she refused and grew more enraged. The neighbor allegedly told Worsley during their fight that her father had been “wanting to do something to [him].”

When the neighbor’s family arrived at Worsley’s door that evening, he remained in his home and asked them to get off of his porch. Though they refused, it was only upon seeing a gun sticking out of Smith’s waistband that Worsley began to shoot, according to Garcia’s narrative.

“This is a tragedy,” Garcia admitted, but asked the jury to “not make it worse by finding a man guilty of first-degree murder when he was just defending himself.”

Worsley’s trial is expected to continue on Aug. 13.