Baltimore County Detective's Actions in One Murder Investigation Draw Scrutiny in Another

TOWSON — Allegations of police misconduct in one Baltimore County murder case spilled into a second case this week as defense attorneys sought to suppress evidence ahead of a trial in the 2024 Christmas Eve shooting death of a 4-year-old boy.

Defense attorneys for Mark Jones, who is accused of fatally shooting his son and injuring two other family members, argued Thursday that evidence obtained from his cellphone should be excluded because of integrity concerns involving Baltimore County Police Detective Storm Sheckells. The detective is under scrutiny for allegedly accessing a different murder suspect's phone before obtaining a search warrant.

"The question is, how many times have these detectives appeared in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County and lied to the court in reference to activities that are taking place on the phones?" Assistant Public Defender Maureen Apugo asked during a hearing for the other case.

Jones, 31, is charged with shooting and killing his 4-year-old son, Jacobi, on Christmas Eve 2024 at a home in Rosedale. He is also charged with shooting and injuring his one-year-old daughter and the children's mother, Promyss Marcelle.

On Thursday, Jones' attorneys asked Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Dennis Robinson to exclude evidence obtained from Jones' phone because Sheckells, the detective at the center of the allegations in the other case, also participated in the seizure of Jones' phone. Jury selection in Jones' trial is scheduled to begin Monday.

Baltimore County Deputy State's Attorney Lisa Dever told Robinson there is no reason to believe Jones' phone was accessed before a search warrant was issued.

"There is nothing here to suppress," Dever said. "Nobody got into that phone prior to that search warrant."

Dever said detectives did not have Jones' passcode. She also said forensic examiner Ashley Hoffman, who performs phone extractions for Baltimore County police, acted pursuant to a search warrant and used code-breaking software to access the phone legally.

Jones' defense team argued that Sheckells' actions raise broader credibility concerns about the investigation. Assistant Public Defender Erin Cullinan told the judge that Sheckells was the only detective present during the execution of the search-and-seizure warrant at the home.

"The state is speculating a lot as to what has or hasn't been done with this phone when it was in Detective Sheckells' custody, and we don't have him here," Cullinan said. "The state has said that they're not going to call him at trial. It's a question of honesty at this point. It's not whether [a pre-warrant search] was done."

Dever acknowledged that Sheckells' integrity has become an issue but argued there is no evidence Jones' phone was improperly accessed.

"Regarding the suppression of the phone, it's what he did with the phone," Dever said. "And if the answer is that he didn't do anything with the phone and it hasn't been accessed, I believe that puts this whole issue to rest."

Assistant Public Defender James Dills also argued there is a chain-of-custody issue because Sheckells will not be available to testify about his role in collecting the phone.

Dills said the defense, not prosecutors, uncovered the irregularities that sparked the controversy.

"It's not like we found this information out through the state or through the police," Dills said. "We found that information out through our own expert that basically testified and had to tell us, 'This is what happened in this case.'"

The controversy stems from a separate murder prosecution against Rashard Mack, who is charged in the March 2025 stabbing death of Taejhiana Walker, a 22-year-old college student from New York whom he had dated.

Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Michael Finifter heard testimony Monday about allegations that Sheckells accessed Mack's phone before obtaining a search warrant. Prosecutors acknowledge that Sheckells entered Mack's birth date– correctly guessing the passcode–and opened the phone before receiving judicial authorization, according to a hearing transcript. They argue, however, that investigators had sufficient independent evidence to establish probable cause for the warrant.

Apugo told Finifter that her office had been alerting the State's Attorney's Office for months that something was amiss. A defense expert testified that the phone showed activity after police seized it but before a warrant was issued.

The defense is seeking to suppress evidence obtained from Mack's phone, arguing police failed to disclose to the magistrate who issued the warrant that an officer had already accessed the device. Apugo also argued that investigators likely obtained additional information because they had the passcode, allowing them to access data beyond what a forensic extraction would have produced.

Assistant State's Attorney Michelle Fuller argued that no information obtained during the unauthorized access was used to secure the warrant and that investigators had ample evidence to establish probable cause.

Calling the conduct "brazen," Apugo told the court, "You don't get to break the law in order to say that someone broke an even bigger law."

Apugo said her understanding is that Sheckells has been suspended since May 28. Sheckells did not testify at either hearing.

"Who is to trust anything that comes out of (these detectives') mouths in this particular case?" Apugo asked Finifter on Monday. "They violated their own code of conduct ... and then you have an instance where they never would have said anything but for the report that we disclosed to them."

Robinson denied the motion to suppress the phone evidence in Jones' case but said the issue could be raised again at trial. He also agreed to allow Hoffman to examine the phone again, this time paying attention to any activity logged after police seized it but before a search warrant for its contents was issued.

Despite already having the same messages from Marcelle's side of the conversation that were turned over to police with her consent, Dever said prosecutors would like to show jurors the texts from Jones' phone to provide a clearer picture of when messages were sent, received and read. The state also wants to introduce a FaceTime call Jones made to his mother, she said.

As of midday Thursday, Finifter had not ruled on the motions in the Mack case. The court was closed Friday for the Juneteenth holiday.