Witness Testimony Continues in Trial for 17-Year-Old Homicide Victim

By Brooke Uzzell [former] - March 31, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

Witness testimony continued on March 31 for two homicide co-defendants on jury trial for the 2018 murder of 17-year-old Beontray Ellis before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Philip S. Jackson. 

Brian Campbell, 24, and Corey Shawn Smith, 28, are both charged with first-degree murder and use of a firearm during a felony violent crime in connection with a shooting that occurred on Sept. 28, 2018. Campbell is also charged with possession of a firearm with a felony conviction and conspiracy to first-degree murder, while Smith faces an additional count of first-degree murder and having a handgun on his person. Smith was arrested a year and a half later after the murder was committed, on Feb. 18, 2020. Campbell was arrested on April 24, 2019.

Campbell was represented by defense attorney Roland Brown, while Smith was counseled by defense attorney Robert J. Cole. 

Judge Jackson listened as prosecutors presented one of the last witnesses to testify, a Baltimore Police Department detective who was the primary investigator on Sept. 28, 2018. The detective shared with the jury that she had been working in the homicide unit for 14 years and overall, she had been with the Baltimore Police Department for 30 years. 

The primary investigator’s testimony described how, in days after the shooting of Ellis, officers canvased the neighborhood in pursuit of a suspect.

Surveillance footage recovered from a corner convenience store shows two suspects in the shooting. One suspect is shorter than the other, in all black clothing, while the taller suspect is wearing a tri-colored sweatshirt and black bottoms, according to the primary investigator’s testimony.

During her investigation, the primary investigator told the jury how she used information provided by an FBI Agent from the Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST), who testified earlier about using Historical Cell Site Analysis, to determine locations of cellular devices. Historical Cell Site Analysis provides an analysis and generation of maps based on phone carrier records. It is generally used by law enforcement to see if an individual is included or excluded from being a suspect in a crime. In addition, the analysis can record the date, time, duration of calls, and who called whom. 

AT&T phone records obtained by the primary investigator show a series of 3-way calls made between Campbell, Smith, and another individual named Avery Rich who had initiated the phone calls. Investigators learned Rich made phone calls on the behalf of both Campbell and Smith around the time of the murder. 

After requesting Campbell’s phone call records and completing a Historical Cell Site Analysis, the primary investigator determined that Campbell was in the area of the 1200 block of Druid Hill Park Avenue on Sept. 28, 2018, where Ellis had been shot and killed.

Addressing the Historical Cellular Site Analysis conducted in this case, Cole asked the primary investigator if she was aware that Smith’s grandmother lives in the same area where Ellis was murdered. Cole also questioned if Rich was issued a subpoena. Rich was an individual who made 3-way calls between Campbell and Smith. Investigators were able to obtain Rich’s phone records and conduct a background investigation. 

The primary investigator testified that there was not enough probable cause to conduct a Historical Cellular Site Analysis on Rich. Rich is about 5’8 in height, just like Smith, according to Cole during cross-examination. Cole proposes to the jury that Rich was killed in retaliation for the murder of Ellis.

AT&T phone records showed Campbell had not called Smith on Sept. 28, 2018.  

Along with phone records, police also searched through the defendants social media accounts. According to the investigator’s testimony, social media is becoming more and more essential in solving crimes that are difficult to solve.

Law enforcement can obtain information from a suspect’s social media pages in the condition when the page was first discovered, as long as the suspect does not delete anything.

During the primary investigator’s investigation of Campbell’s 11,000 Facebook and Instagram pages, she found a photo of Campbell in a tri-color sweatshirt, black, red, and white. Arguing to the jury that both hoodies are very similar, the prosecutor compared this image found on Campbell’s Instagram highlights to the footage recovered from the day of the incident. Additionally, Campbell’s biography on Instagram contained a rap video which captured him in the same tri-color sweatshirt from the day of the incident.

While the prosecutor continued to exhibit screen recordings of Campbell’s Instagram to the jury, she revealed how investigators learned at one point of the investigation that Campbell had erased all images of him in the tri-color sweatshirt from his Instagram account. 

During the defense counsel’s cross-examination of the primary investigator in this case, Brown questions the description of the suspects identified in the surveillance footage recovered from the day of the incident. He asks her if she is able to describe the suspects’ hair, skin complexion, gender or eye color from the video, in which she replies with “I couldn’t tell you that sir.” 

Brown also questioned how investigators discovered Campbell’s Instagram account in the first place, and the primary investigator’s way of preserving the Instagram account before initiating a preservation form online. The primary investigator testified that she had written down what she had seen on a piece of paper, noting that the tri-color sweatshirt was what connected Campbell to the murder. 

In addition to the social media evidence, audio from a jail call between Smith and an individual named during the investigation reveals how in days after the killing of Ellis, Smith bragged about the killing, and even asked if the inmate had seen the news report about the crime on a media source known as ‘Murder Ink’ on Instagram. 

In a quick re-cross of the primary investigator, the prosecutor revisits the surveillance video recovered from the convenience store on the date of the incident. She testified that you can see one of the suspects’ complexion is much lighter than hers and one of the suspects is clearly a man, not a woman. 

According to court documents, on Sept. 28, 2018 at approximately 1:34p.m. Baltimore Police Department officers responded to the 1200 block of Druid Hill Avenue for reports of a shooting. When officers arrived, they found Ellis suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. 

He was taken to an area hospital where he later died.

Closing arguments are scheduled to begin April 1.