There, prosecutors claimed, Walker pulled up in a Lincoln Navigator and opened fire - either with two guns or with the help of an unknown accomplice.
Beckford was killed; the 9-month-old child was unharmed and his mother became the shaken witness in the Baltimore courtroom.
At trial, Shaffer depicted Walker and Moreno as well-off, owning the luxury sport utility vehicle, a Louis Vuitton briefcase, flat-screen TVs and a video surveillance system. They spent $1,800 a month to rent a three-bedroom home in Perry Hall, and sent their child to Catholic school while receiving food stamps.
And after hearing those allegations, coupled with the brief exchange between the woman who survived the attack and the defendant, the jurors grew so afraid that they told the judge they didn't want to talk about the threat against the witness in the presence of Walker's and Moreno's attorneys, Margaret Mead and Leslie Stein.
The jurors requested a private meeting with the judge, and in an unheard-of move, Byrnes agreed to the request. On the afternoon of April 24, he took off his robe, cut off the video recording of the trial and spent about an hour behind closed doors with jurors, deciding how to proceed.
"I didn't see the threat," Mead said later. "All I have to go on is what my client told me, and he says that his gestures and words were meant to tell the witness that she was about to be exposed as a liar."
If Walker or Moreno is convicted, Byrnes' decision is certain to be appealed and could result in a reversal, said Byron L. Warnken, a law professor at the University of Baltimore who specializes in criminal procedure.
"Any communication between the court and the jury, the defendant is entitled to be present for," Warnken said. "It's true that the courts will give some deference to the trial judge, if there's fear or intimidation or embarrassment, and the judge may close the proceedings a little bit."
But that's meant to restrict the public, not the defendant or his attorney, he said.
When the recording resumed, Byrnes asked each juror to approach the bench. In the presence of the defense attorneys and prosecutor, Byrnes asked the jurors and alternates whether they could be fair and impartial.
All of the women answered yes.
