Baltimore County Jury Acquits Reisterstown Man of Murder, Robbery in Teen’s Killing
TOWSON — A Baltimore County jury found 20-year-old Mehki Brown of Reisterstown not guilty of murder, robbery, and a gun charge Monday in the 2024 shooting death of 17-year-old Nestor Nunez.
The verdict came after four days of testimony and deliberations on Friday evening and Monday. Jurors initially told Circuit Judge Jan Alexander on Monday morning that they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict, but continued deliberating after receiving additional instructions.
Nunez was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds about 6:30 a.m. June 9, 2024, in a parking lot in the 200 block of Hammershire Road in Reisterstown. Investigators believe he was shot shortly before 1 a.m. He had been shot six times with two different firearms.
Prosecutors argued that Brown participated in a robbery that resulted in Nunez's death, even if he had not fired the fatal shots.
Their evidence included photographs of Brown wearing clothing and shoes resembling items owned by Nunez, as well as photographs of Brown holding a handgun resembling one Nunez had displayed on social media. A school resource officer also recovered Nunez's cellphone from Brown the day after the killing, though police at that time had not identified Brown as a suspect in the homicide.
Assistant State's Attorney Natalie Scurto argued that the evidence amounted to more than a series of coincidences.
“He would have to be literally the unluckiest person on the planet for all of these things to match up,” she told jurors.
But defense attorney Latoya Francis-Williams argued that investigators had developed “tunnel vision” and failed to consider evidence pointing away from Brown.
She emphasized the absence of DNA evidence linking Brown to the killing and location data that she said placed him in Owings Mills around the time of the shooting.
“The actual objective documented scientific evidence says this young man had nothing to do with a robbery or a killing,” Francis-Williams told the jury.
Brown testified in his own defense, denying that he robbed or shot Nunez. He said the clothing in the photographs belonged to him and that he had found Nunez's cellphone on the ground while walking to school.
Brown still faces separate criminal charges stemming from his arrest at Franklin High School on June 10, 2024, when a school resource officer was notified by students and staff that Brown may have had a gun in his waistband, according to charging documents.
Police searching Brown reported discovering a loaded handgun in his waistband. Those charges include assault, resisting arrest, having a weapon on school property, and possessing a firearm without a serial number,
A trial date in that case was postponed Monday and re-scheduled for February, 2027.
Following the acquittals, the court ordered Brown released from the Baltimore County Detention Center as to the murder and robbery case only. He remains jailed on the charges stemming from the school incident.
