Trial opened Tuesday in a murder case against a teenager accused of killing a 23-year-old man in Middle River last summer.
Avar Cornell Tunstall, 18, of the 4200 block of Maple Path Circle near White Marsh is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Terrell Scott in the first block of Maple Drive. The two appeared to have had some kind of argument, Baltimore County Circuit Court documents say.
Baltimore County police found Scott about 11:48 p.m. Aug. 25 suffering from gunshot wounds, according to documents. He died at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.
Tunstall was charged a few months later, after police interviews with witnesses and others.
"The defendant had to protect his turf. He was being disrespected, and he couldn't have that happen," said Francis J. Pilarski Jr., an assistant state's attorney, in his opening remarks to the jury.
Pilarski said Tunstall sold crack in the area where the shooting took place. "On this night, the defendant would send a message. ... He would shoot [Scott] over and over and over again."
Pilarski emphasized that one of those shots was in Scott's back.
But defense attorney Donald Daneman said Tunstall was "not a murderer." He said Scott was a "drunk" who approached Tunstall and others and started an argument, then came at them with a knife.
"He tried to kill my client, stab my client," Daneman said. Faced with that, "you're gonna do whatever you have to do so your family doesn't have to go to a viewing of your body."
