A Southwest Baltimore murder trial commenced with opening statements on May 13, with jurors hearing from attorneys about the evidence that led police to arrest 26-year-old Edgewood man Anthony Troy Ross.
Ross is charged with first-degree murder, firearm use and having a handgun on his person in connection to the shooting death of 23-year-old Lavar Steeles. Steeles was shot minutes after midnight June 13, 2025, and succumbed to fatal wounds at an area hospital. Charging documents state he sustained a total of five gunshot wounds.
Investigators later located a crime scene on the 1500 block of W. Fayette Street, where they recovered surveillance footage, 11 fired shell casings and one handgun light attachment. Detectives never recovered a gun.
The prosecutor told jurors in his opening statement that investigators were able to swab the handgun attachment for DNA, which they later tested alongside samples from Ross. The results, he said, were statistically a probable match.
Detectives interviewed members of Steeles’ family and learned that the mother of his child had been present at the scene of the shooting. She told investigators that she saw the shooter wearing black gloves and a black mask, and provided them with the name “Troy”—the defendant’s middle name.
The eyewitness also provided investigators with an Instagram handle that they later linked to Ross. Photographs uploaded to the account appeared to showed Ross wearing shoes and a pair of shorts similar to the shooter’s in the recovered surveillance footage.
Investigators also recovered Ross’ cellphone number and extracted location data that placed him in the area of the shooting around the time it occurred.
The state’s case centralized three key points of evidence—the eyewitness account given by the mother of Steeles’ child, the DNA link with Ross and the location data extracted from his cellphone.
Meanwhile, defense attorney Lawrence Rosenberg contended that the method investigators used to produce the DNA match was rather “tenuous” and maintained detectives “got the wrong person.” He also indicated there was no recovered gun in the case.
The trial is set to continue through the week before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jeannie J. Hong.
