The man who was accused of killing scholar-athlete Rio-Jarell Tatum walked out of a Baltimore courtroom yesterday morning with a huge smile and a swagger after prosecutors dropped charges against him.
In a Circuit Court proceeding that lasted less than a minute, Assistant State's Attorney Sharon Holback told a judge that "in light of insufficient evidence" she was not proceeding with charges against Nathaniel Boyd Fedd, 30.
Fedd is still being held in lieu of $50,000 bond on a separate charge in a robbery that occurred four days before Tatum was killed.
Fedd, who smirked at reporters after the hearing, was accused of one of the most shocking killings of the year and had been scheduled to stand trial on a murder charge next week.
"It's not right to hold somebody on a murder charge when there's not evidence to convict him," Holback said after the hearing. "We're not going to play games."
The state's murder case against Fedd fell apart in recent weeks when detectives realized that their witnesses were not reliable enough to convince a jury that he was the man who gunned down 19-year-old Tatum in a $10 holdup.
Tatum, a Polytechnic Institute graduate, was shot May 26 in a robbery on North Paca Street that enraged the community. He was home after finishing his first year at Pennsylvania State University, which he attended on an academic scholarship.
Detectives found three witnesses and arrested Fedd 13 days later. After he was indicted two months later, detectives began finding problems with witnesses. There was no forensic evidence.
One witness made a tentative identification of Fedd but could not positively say he was the shooter. A second said she heard Fedd confess to the crime, but police later learned that she might have been confused about Fedd's admission.
A third witness said he saw the shooting, but police subsequently learned that he was not near the crime scene and was seeking reward money.
Holback said she was "proud" of her office for dropping the charges.
"I'm not disappointed," Holback said. "Our job is to do what's right. No one - including Rio Tatum's family - wants the wrong person to go to prison."
She said police are still looking for the assailant.
Margaret T. Burns, spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office, said the Tatum case is an example of why her office thinks prosecutors should have the authority to charge defendants in murder and serious felony cases. Currently, that power resides with the police.
"If prosecutors had charging authority, it is likely that the assistant state's attorneys involved in this case would have determined that further investigation by the Police Department was merited" before Fedd was charged, she said.
Mayor Martin O'Malley and Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris have said that there is no need to change the current system. The Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, a court reform group, is looking into the issue and is expected to take a stand in coming weeks.
