After deliberating a little more than three hours over two days, a Baltimore jury yesterday found Brandon Grimes, 23, guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of city police officer and father of five Troy Lamont Chesley Sr.
Grimes, who was also convicted yesterday of illegal gun possession and using a handgun to commit a violent crime, could receive a combined maximum sentence of life in prison without parole plus 20 years, said Joseph Sviatko, a spokesman for the state's attorney's office. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 21.
"It's over, Troy, it's over," Chesley's mother said outside the courtroom.
"It took 19 months," Joyce Chesley said, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue, relatives clinging to her side. Above her heart, she wore a pin adorned with her son's photo. "I'm glad it's over."
Prosecutors said Grimes shot Chesley, 34, twice in the chest as he tried to unlock the front door of his Forest Park apartment on Fairfax Road in the early hours of Jan. 9, 2007. The detective, who had just finished working a late shift, returned fire, wounding Grimes in the leg.
"The bottom line is, this case is not over, this is step one," said Grimes' attorney, Roland Walker, who "unquestionably" plans to appeal the verdict.
The two-week trial drew widespread attention for several reasons: An officer was involved, and Grimes had never served substantial prison time, despite more than 17 arrests. He's currently facing charges in two unrelated cases involving a carjacking and a handgun violation.
As the trial began last week, city officials acknowledged that DNA samples at the city's crime lab had been contaminated by employees' genetic material. Walker mounted the first of what will likely be a spate of challenges to evidence processed by the lab. After a manual check of the evidence in the Grimes case, the city lab discovered that one sample prosecutors presented as evidence had been contaminated by a lab employee's DNA.
"Were I on the jury, I would have completely discounted any reference to the DNA evidence in this case, it was so rifled with problems," Walker said. "Had [the jury] looked closely at [the evidence] and studied it and carefully considered it, I don't think they could have arrived at this verdict."
However, the prosecutors also presented witnesses who put Grimes at the scene of the crime, as well as other physical evidence.
