About 1:20 a.m. on Jan. 9, 2007, police said, Grimes approached Chesley as he fumbled for his keys on the front porch of a house in the 4500 block of Fairfax Road and then shot him with the same pistol used in the carjacking. Police said Chesley managed to return fire and wounded Grimes in the leg.
Police said the same green Caravan delivered Grimes to St. Agnes Hospital for treatment for his gunshot wound. Robinson's stolen property was found in the Caravan.
Wiggins wanted to be able to present evidence of those allegations to the jury in the murder trial, calling Carter and Robinson to the stand to prove the connections.
But Doory denied the request yesterday, saying that telling jurors about the carjacking would unfairly prejudice the panel against Grimes, 23.
The reversal of the two witnesses isn't the first complication in authorities' efforts to investigate and prosecute the crimes with which Grimes is charged.
The two victims called 911 after the carjacking, but police did not take a report or conduct an investigation. In addition, the Sig Sauer semiautomatic pistol believed to have killed Chesley had slipped through the Police Department's hands twice. Police seized it during a 2001 illegal firearms investigation, but the case fell apart, and they returned it to its owner. Five years later, the owner reported the gun stolen, but police did not follow through with an investigation.
melissa.harris@baltsun.com
