Man convicted of murdering Baltimore police officer found guilty of fraud in prison
Brandon Grimes, who was convicted of murdering a Baltimore police detective in 2007, was found guilty of trying to overturn his conviction.
After a three-day jury trial, Grimes was found guilty of evidence tampering, identity fraud, and other charges for attempting to secure an exoneration to be released from prison and receive financial benefits from the State of Maryland.
Charging documents show Grimes faked a ballistics report in an attempt to overturn his conviction. The Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office said Grimes received a 10-year sentence.
Grimes was already serving Life without parole for the deadly shooting of Baltimore Police Det. Troy Lamont Chesley Sr. in the 4500 block of Fairfax Road on January 7, 2007.
Grimes shot Chesley, who was off duty, during a robbery. Grimes was also shot in the attack.
"The attempts made by the defendant to falsely exonerate himself and receive financial benefits not only put the accreditation of our world-class crime lab at risk, but also undermine every real petition of actual innocence that comes forward from wrongfully convicted individuals," Baltimore County State's Attorney Ivan Bates said. "Thanks to the diligent work of our Conviction Integrity Unit, this attempted deception was caught before a dangerous offender with a lengthy criminal record could be potentially released from incarceration and steal taxpayer dollars."
Grimes falsified ballistics report to get out of prison
Court documents said that Grimes used outside help and spent years concocting a plan to falsify a ballistics report to secure his release.
He also tried to defraud the State of Maryland of approximately $1,462,896 through the Office of Administrative Hearings.
According to charging documents obtained by WJZ Investigates, Grimes faked a ballistics report to show he did not kill Detective Troy Chesley in January 2007 and hoped to get hundreds of thousands of dollars as payment for being wrongly convicted.
Court records show that Grimes, in March 2024, filed a petition for writ of actual innocence with the Baltimore City Circuit Court.
He alleged in 2018 that an assistant state's attorney "turned over to Grimes various pieces of newly discovered evidence she found, and amongst those documents was a ballistic report she claimed she found in a box somewhere."
Grimes claimed Baltimore police suppressed that report, and a document labeled "confidential" showed he was shot by the same weapon that killed Detective Chesley, and therefore proved he was not the killer.
The Conviction Integrity Unit found the Bullet Report was a fraud and forwarded the findings to the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit. The State's Attorney's Office and the police department investigators found several inconsistencies in the Bullet Report, including the names and signatures of two firearms examiners who did not prepare or sign it.
Investigators said Grimes discussed his scheme with several individuals in recorded phone calls made from prison, which included references to getting out of prison, securing money from the State, and fabricating documentation.
