Dundalk Murder Trial Opens in Baltimore County
Defendant also faces separate Baltimore City charges tied to an alleged murder-for-hire scheme that left six others dead, including a pregnant woman
A D.C.-area man accused of murder-for-hire in five Baltimore City deaths is on trial this week in Towson, charged with a sixth murder in Dundalk.
Keith Russell, 40, is facing charges Baltimore County Circuit Court of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and related weapons offenses in the death of Tayvon Ernest Scott, 43.
Scott was killed in a drive-by shooting as he stood beside his silver Chrysler Voyager near his row home on the 1900 block of Ewald Street, March 2, 2022.
In opening statements Thursday, Assistant State's Attorney Zarena Sita told jurors Russell and his co-defendant, Cornell Moore, traded photos of Scott's house before the murder. After the murder, Sita said, Russell texted Moore screen shots of a news article about the shooting as well as a screen shot of a memorial post on social media for Scott. The two are also connected through vehicles, she said.
"We are going to be showing you more that just connections," she said. "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three or more times and it is a pattern of behaviors."
Defense attorney John E. Cox told jurors the case against Russell is entirely circumstantial and the facts the state does have do not add up to proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Cox said the state has no evidence showing Russell shot Scott or was in the car that day.
"No one is ever going to get on the stand and say they saw Keith Russell do anything," Cox said.
Co-defendant Moore, 39, of Gwynn Oak, faces the same county charges as Russell. Moore is set to go on trial on the county charges March 2, according to court records.
The county case is related to a multi-agency investigation of violent crimes and murders in the greater Baltimore area dating back as early as 2020. Russell and Moore are both accused in the city of being part of a murder-for-hire scheme. Russell is charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the city cases; Moore is charged with six city murders. Both face charges of participating in a criminal gang as well as dozens of other crimes. Neither man has faced trial yet in the city cases.
A press release issued by Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates Oct. 15, 2024, said a gang contracted Russell and Moore as hit men to stamp out its rivals through terror and violence. Gang members were compensated for committing acts of violence to protect the gang's reputation and help maintain its dominance, according to Bates.
A witness Thursday in the Dundalk case described seeing two men wearing black masks shooting at Scott as they drove past. The witness said one man was hanging out of the car's passenger side, sitting on the window opening and firing across the car's roof. The witness initially testified the car was silver, but later said the car was black.
Crime scene investigators found spent cartridge casings from at least two different guns at the scene.. Some casings were .223 caliber and others were .45-caliber cartridge casings. One witness told a 911 operator right after the shooting that the gunshots "sounded automatic."
Baltimore City police in court documents said the vehicle suspected in the Dundalk shooting – a silver or gray Nissan Rogue with dark tinted windows and no hubcaps – is similar to the one allegedly connected to a non-fatal shooting in the city Feb. 25, 2022, as well as a double shooting May 12, 2022.
The May shooting on the 300 block of 23rd Street in Baltimore killed a pregnant woman, Angel Smith, and her fiancé, Yahmell Montague, according to police. Doctors delivered Smith's baby, who survived the shooting, according to police. Investigators believe the Nissan Rogue staked out the area for several hours before the couple came home. The two were shot from a vehicle as they were parking, police said.
On May 14, 2022, Baltimore City police found a Nissan Rogue matching the description on the 4400 block of Penhurst Avenue in the West Arlington neighborhood of Baltimore City, according to court documents. Spent .223-caliber casings were found in the Nissan, according to police records.
Carjackers had stolen the Rogue in Prince Georges County, Md., in January 2022, according to court documents. The Rogue’s tags had been taken from a 2018 Honda CRV that had been stolen from Prince Georges County in March 2022, according to police. Police found the stolen Honda on Penhurst Drive about a block away from where the Rogue was recovered. Police believe the Honda was used in a non-fatal shooting in the city.
“Upon examining the Nissan Rogue, investigators are confident this exact vehicle was utilized in all three cases,” police wrote in court documents.
Testimony is scheduled to continue Friday.
Correction: A previous version of this story contained an error. The prosecution told jurors about cell tower mapping related to the suspect vehicle and connections between Russell and Moore, but none of the cell tower data mapping was from the area of crime scene the day of the shooting.