Opening statements and testimony began March 26 in the trial of 37-year-old Cassandra Lakesha McRae and 35-year-old Tavon Singleton, a couple on trial for the murder of 52-year-old Antoinette Jennings at a children’s basketball game last January.
Proceedings are taking place before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Dana M.Middleton.
Jennings was fatally shot on the 5400 block of York Road following a dispute between her family and McRae on Jan. 22, 2025. During opening arguments, the state told jurors how Jennings was fatally shot in the neck, and that the final words she heard were McRae alerting her co-conspirators to her location as she told them, “There they go right there, there they go right there.”
The state claimed McRae became “hot” after a fight involving her child broke out at the basketball game. According to prosecutors, McRae conspired with others to carry out the murder, calling multiple people, including Singleton, to the scene and instructing a family friend to bring guns.
The jury was told that assailants ran up to a blue Honda and shot out three of its four windows, leaving abrasions on Jennings face from the glass. Jennings, the state asserted, “didn’t stand a chance” due to a rapidly fatal injury.
Following the gunfire, Jennings’ daughter was seen exiting the car while screaming as her own son attempted to assist her. Two younger children, ages 6 and 11, remained in the back seat, and the 11-year-old sustained a graze wound from a bullet.
Medical examiners who conducted Jennings’ autopsy ruled her death a homicide caused by gunshot wounds. At trial, an examiner told jurors that one of the bullets entered the left side of Jennings’ face near her mouth, and that it hit the jugular before exiting through her neck. A second bullet pierced her shoulder and fractured her arm bone.
Authorities later obtained cellphone records for three of McRae’s and Singleton’s relatives that appeared to show them moving in the same direction on York Road.
The state concluded by asking the jury to find the defendants guilty of murder and all other related charges, emphasizing that aiding a murder is “just as bad as if you shot that gun yourself.”
Defense attorney Michael Joseph Tomko, representing McRae, described his client as a “37-year-old young lady [with] no criminal record, a proud mother and health care worker” who simply meant to seek help from her acquaintances and ensure her family’s safety after the initial dispute began.
“The suggestion made by the state that she acted in a conspiratorial nature and set up this whole thing is not true,” Tomko said before asking the jury to acquit his client.
Robert D. Cole and co-counsel Daniel Mooney, representing Singleton, stressed the state’s high burden of proof and demanded solid evidence in determining their client’s guilt.
Later in proceedings, Jennings’ husband took the stand to testify regarding his recollection of the events leading up to the shooting.
He told jurors that at around 5:30 p.m., he saw Jennings turn right onto York Road while he drove the opposite direction in a separate vehicle. Shortly after, his son called him, telling him that Jennings and her grandson had been shot.
At Tomko’s questioning, Jennings’ husband said his daughter began arguing with two other mothers in the basketball game’s aftermath, and that his wife became involved when she attempted to break up the fight.
The trial is set to continue on March 27 with further witness testimony.
