Two men accused of engaging in a shootout in West Caton more than two years ago appeared before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Anthony F. Vittoria on Jan. 29 for the second day of their joint jury trial.
Shyheem Thompson, 24, faces 14 charges, while Marcus Lilly, 43, faces 16. Both face three counts each of attempted first- and second-degree murder, first-degree assault and firearm use, along with several handgun violations.
Charging documents state the co-defendants opened fire at each other on the 3500 block of W. Caton Avenue during the early evening hours of Oct. 16, 2024. According to the state’s attorney, area surveillance cameras captured the two men circling the neighborhood looking for each other” before they opened fire “on sight.”
A man and his cousin who had been moving a refrigerator in the vicinity were caught in the crossfire, leaving the former with gunshot wounds to his lower body. Though he survived, he required multiple surgeries, and the state’s attorney told jurors they can expect to hear about the resulting “thousands of pages of medical records.”
The state’s attorney described how Thompson attempted to use the victim’s cousin, who escaped the incident unscathed, as a shield while continuing to discharge in Lilly’s direction.
“There is no good reason for what these gentlemen did,” she said, adding that the co-defendants acted with “no care whatsoever for the men caught in the crossfire.”
Despite previously citing communication issues with his defense attorney, Andre Mahasa, Thompson did not seek new counsel prior to trial. During his opening statement, Mahasa argued that the state failed to meet their burden of proof in identifying his client as one of the men involved in the shootout.
“We will allow the video to speak for itself,” Mahasa said. “We will allow the witnesses to speak for themselves.”
Lilly’s defense attorney, Michael Tomko, claimed his client’s willingness to cooperate with detectives upon his arrest indicated a lack of guilt in the gunfight.
“He has nothing to hide,” Tomko said. “When he was arrested… he waived his rights. He gave his phone number and address.”
That state’s attorney described how FBI cell site analysts later found that Lilly’s cellphone records placed him in the area of the gunfight around the time it occurred, but Tomko countered that Lilly was a resident of a nearby neighborhood. Upon obtaining a search warrant, investigators failed to recover a gun from Lilly’s home or car, only taking a pair of mismatched shoes to file into evidence.
“They didn’t find anything,” Tomko concluded.
The trial is expected to continue through next week with witness testimony.
