Carjackers Couldn't Drive Stick: Accused Teen Faces Trial

The teens who robbed a man near Federal Hill three years ago couldn’t drive the stick-shift car they were trying to steal. But they had a gun — and they seemed eager to use it.

“They did tell me if they didn’t kill me that night, they were going to kill someone else,” the victim told jurors in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

Testimony began Tuesday in the trial of a 17-year-old accused of being part of a criminal organization responsible for dozens of crimes in Baltimore City and County, including armed carjacking, armed robbery, kidnapping, and rape.

Jurors Tuesday heard from victim after victim who described being ambushed and robbed by two or more armed teens on different occasions:

— The Federal Hill victim who was robbed of $880 and his phone.

— A man heading to work, robbed of his car and the $600 intended for his car payment.

— A couple relaxing on playground equipment who were robbed of their phones and car.

— A man in Park Heights taking an evening walk with his wife who was robbed of his phone.

— A woman DoorDashing with her spouse who was robbed, and her wife’s car stolen.

The defendant was 14 at the time of his arrest and is being tried in adult court. Because his name continues to be shielded on the public docket, the Baltimore County Courtroom Observer is withholding his full name and will identify him only as C.M.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Lawson said C.M. had only begun spending time with this “group of kids going around doing stupid things” about a month before the incidents.

In his opening statement, Lawson asked jurors to notice inconsistencies in the evidence surrounding the rape allegation.

“Pay close attention as to how the victim identifies her attacker,” Lawson said.

He told jurors the victim told police she heard her attacker’s name as something starting with “Ty,” and that a teen with a similar name was originally a suspect in the rape. He urged jurors to listen closely to the testimony about the sexual assault and “ask yourself, ‘Where is the DNA?’”

Federal Hill Robbery

The Federal Hill victim told jurors that two armed teens approached him on Nov. 4, 2022, just after midnight on the 1300 block of S. Charles Street. One teen lifted his hoodie to show a gun and demanded the victim’s phone, keys, and wallet.

What they really wanted, he said, was his five-speed Honda Accord.

When the teens saw the car had three pedals, they weren’t sure how to drive it, he testified.

He decided his best chance of avoiding being hurt was to try to explain how to drive a manual transmission.

“I figured it was better for them to have the car than to end up getting shot over it,” he said. “So I explained to them, you lift off the clutch and give it gas, but they couldn’t figure it out.”

The teens then took him to an ATM and forced him to empty his bank account, stealing $880.

Surveillance video showed the teens with the man inside a BP station on the 1100 block of S. Hanover Street. In the video, one teen chats with the clerk while the other stands beside the victim as he makes multiple withdrawals.

Testimony ended Tuesday with a forensic scientist who said she matched fingerprints from items at some of the crime scenes to C.M.

Testimony is scheduled to resume this morning.

The case is being prosecuted by the Criminal Division of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office — Assistant Attorneys General Nancy Frigo and Mark Meehan — and is part of a wide-ranging investigation by a joint city, county, state, and federal task force.

Several co-defendants have already been convicted after accepting plea deals.