A Baltimore jury convicted a Perry Hall couple Wednesday of killing a New York-based drug dealer. The panel had watched one of the defendants threaten a witness on the stand midway through the trial.
On the 10th day of a 17-day trial, jurors saw Lance Walker, 29, lock eyes with the only eyewitness to the murder, point to a legal document, give a thumbs-down signal and warn: "I know who you are. You're going down. You're going down."
On Wednesday, as the jury forewoman read the verdict finding the couple guilty of murder, attempted murder, and handgun and conspiracy charges, Walker cried.
After the proceeding was finished, four sheriff's deputies quickly escorted the all-female panel out of the marble-paneled courtroom, into the hallway and around the corner, where they waited for a private elevator. All of the women either ignored requests for an interview or shook their heads no before the elevator doors closed.
During the trial, prosecutor Theresa Shaffer contended that Lance Walker and Nadirah Moreno, who lived together and called each other husband and wife but were not legally married, executed an elaborate plot to murder Marlon Beckford, 31, who had fronted them $48,000 worth of marijuana, which the couple either couldn't or wouldn't repay.
Moreno, Shaffer argued, lured the victim from the Bronx to Baltimore, telling him that she had the money. When Beckford arrived, Moreno told him that Walker was in prison.
With Beckford, his infant godson and the child's mother in the car in the early morning hours of Oct. 30, 2007, Moreno led the group to a secluded area in front of the Ravenwood apartments in the 5800 block of Edgepark Road, near the Mount Pleasant Golf Course. There, the prosecutor said, Walker pulled up in a Lincoln Navigator and opened fire.
Beckford was killed; the 9-month-old child was unharmed and his mother became the shaken witness in the Baltimore courtroom.
The case lasted 3 1/2 weeks as attorneys argued over hundreds of matters, both big and small.
Walker's attorney, Margaret Mead, asked for a mistrial 14 times by her count. On the first day of the trial, her client was accused of trying to rally fellow Black Guerrilla Family gang members to come to his trial and intimidate witnesses and jurors from the gallery.
Defense attorneys accused the prosecutor of withholding evidence, including about 10 love letters between Walker and Moreno in 2004 and 2005, in which they describe each other as Bonnie and Clyde. Judge John Carroll Byrnes barred the jury from seeing those letters after finding that the prosecutor hadn't turned them over to the defense in time.
In a rare move, after consulting with the attorneys, the judge spoke privately with jurors at their request about the threat against the witness.
The circumstances surrounding that decision are in dispute, as Mead tried to withdraw her support for the meeting after it took place.
In response to Walker's threat against the witness, Moreno's attorney, Leslie Stein, asked for the defendants to be tried separately. Byrnes denied that request and then a few days later revoked Moreno's bail.
Defense attorneys said they plan to ask for a new trial.
