Murder Trial Underway in Double Shooting That Left Two Children Alone in Apartment

WOODLAWN — Stacey Kelly used to talk to her 18-year-old son several times a day. So when she couldn’t reach him or his girlfriend for most of the day on Jan. 11, 2025, she worried something was wrong.

When she opened the door to their Gwynn Oak apartment, she immediately was alarmed. The door was unlocked, and the baby was in his bouncy swing. The baby’s toddler sister came running out of the kitchen with blood on her. Kelly saw her son’s body on the kitchen floor, slumped against a wall, with his girlfriend’s body on top of his.

“A whole day went by where those children had to fend for themselves and no one was there to take care of them,” Assistant State’s Attorney Aleisha Vines told jurors Tuesday at the murder trial for the alleged shooter, 19-year-old Markie Cole.

The children were unharmed, but Kelly’s son, Daryle “Bry” Carter, and his girlfriend, Angel Price, 23, both were dead. Carter had been shot once in the head. Price had been shot once in the mouth.

Cole, of Baltimore, is on trial in Baltimore County Circuit Court charged with two counts of first-degree murder, vehicle theft, theft and firearm offenses.

Cole, who was Carter’s friend, occasionally tagged along with the couple as Price made deliveries for DoorDash and Instacart. He often wore a black ski mask, according to a witness.

Police say surveillance video shows Cole entering the apartment in the 3400 block of Aurora Lane with Carter and Price around 9 p.m. and leaving alone at 10:39 p.m., wearing a black face mask.

A masked man was seen running out of the apartment building, across the parking lot and driving away in Price’s Ford Taurus, according to police. The car later was found near Cole’s girlfriend’s home in Baltimore City.

Cole’s defense team says their client has always insisted he is not the person who killed Price and Carter.

“He did not commit those murders. He did not have a gun. He did not steal her car. And he’s not guilty,” defense attorney Tiera Hawkes said.

Through cross-examination, the defense has suggested another man had a motive to kill the couple. Price’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her children lived in the same apartment complex.

In November 2024, he had gotten drunk and made a scene at Price’s apartment, kicking the door and threatening Carter. A doorbell camera captured the incident.

Price obtained a protective order against him. The paperwork was still on the kitchen counter when police searched the apartment after the murders.

On the stand, Price's ex-boyfriend became emotional several times and said he thinks about Price every day. He is now raising their two children alone, he said.

He denied having anything to do with the killings.

“I’m not no evil person,” he said. “I don’t want nobody dead.”

He admitted driving away when police tried to stop him the evening the bodies were found. He testified that he didn’t stop because he didn’t believe he had anything to do with the police activity at the apartment complex. He told defense attorney Timothy Bahr that, at the time, he didn’t know the police presence involved his ex-girlfriend.

He said he called police the following day after realizing the activity likely involved Price. He allowed police to take his DNA and search his phone.

“I had nothing to hide,” he said.

Police eventually eliminated him as a possible suspect.

In her opening statement, Vines warned jurors to be wary of what she called the defense’s “trap.”

“You will hear testimony of how it is impossible for [Price's ex-boyfriend] to have committed this act,” she said.

Vines told jurors that surveillance video and cellphone data show that the ex-boyfriend was not in the area at the time of the shootings. She said Cole was the only other adult at the scene when the murders occurred and that no one else entered or exited the apartment that night.

The trial is scheduled to resume Monday morning.