The prosecution of a man charged with killing an off-duty Baltimore police officer suffered a setback yesterday when a judge ruled that jurors could not hear evidence linking the defendant to a carjacking days before the homicide.
Brandon Grimes goes on trial today for the fatal shooting of Detective Troy Lamont Chesley Sr. During a motions hearing yesterday, Circuit Judge Timothy Doory ruled that prosecutors will not be allowed to present evidence of the carjacking for fear it would prejudice the jury. What's more, the two victims of the carjacking recanted their identification of Grimes as their attacker.
The carjacking victims who "testified here today could not convince me it's Monday," Doory said. "I don't know who they are afraid of. I don't know with whom they're angry. I do know what they said was totally and completely not believable."
The carjacking victims, Donta Robinson and Jamal Carter, testified that, more than a month after the attack, homicide detectives interrogated them as if they were suspects until they identified "the man who killed the police officer" as the man who carjacked them.
In earlier tape recordings of their statements to police, Carter and Robinson sounded sure of their identifications, but by yesterday, their testimony had been reduced to a series of contradictions.
In the taped statement, Robinson said that after seeing Grimes' picture on television he called Carter to confirm that it was the same man who attacked them. But on the witness stand, Carter denied having that conversation, and both Carter and Robinson said they couldn't identify and didn't even look at the man who attacked them. Prosecutor Kevin Wiggins had them jailed to ensure their appearance in court yesterday.
Doory once interrupted Carter's testimony to ask him: "Do you know you can get locked up for lying in court?"
Police said that about 7 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2007, Grimes, armed with a "laser-sighted, semiautomatic pistol with an oversized clip," approached Carter and Robinson in front of Carter's apartment in the 4200 block of Bonner Road. Police allege that Grimes ordered the men to the ground, emptied their pockets, told Robinson not to look at him, and struck Carter in the back of the head. Police say Grimes fled in Robinson's white Mercury Marquis, trailed by a green Dodge Caravan.
Four days after the carjacking, Chesley, 34, died in what police believe was a robbery attempt.
