Daaon Spears not guilty of murder in 2023 Baltimore mass shooting

A jury has found Daaon Spears not guilty of murdering Deanta Dorsey. Spears was being retried for a 2023 Baltimore mass shooting that killed the 16-year-old Dorsey and left four others wounded.

Spears was acquitted of first degree murder and attempted murder charges. He hugged his attorney after the verdict was read.

Edmondson shopping plaza shooting

The case relied heavily on video surveillance. Dorsey's family said they simply wanted justice for the high school sophomore who was shot 16 times in the parking lot of the Edmondson Village Shopping Center.

Spears and another murder suspect, Bryan Johnson, were arrested after the shooting. They were both 16 at the time. Johnson is being tried separately.  

Jurors asked the judge two questions before reaching a verdict. They wanted to know why they couldn't get camera footage from the front of the shopping plaza and whether they could see a pair of shoes that prosecutors said Spears was wearing during the shooting.

The judge said that surveillance footage was never introduced into evidence. The jurors were given the shoes to examine.

Daaon Spears trial

In closing arguments, defense attorney Brandon Taylor told jurors that the evidence against Spears was circumstantial and argued police were under pressure to make an arrest in the high-profile case. He also questioned the surveillance video that was a key part of the state's case.

"Can you really see who's shooting?" Taylor asked. "Reasonable doubt."  

Prosecutor Rita Wisthoff-Ito argued to the jury that cameras tracked Spears before, during and after the shooting, which she said was "clearly planned."

"He's got a job to do. He's going to kill Deanta Dorsey," Wisthoff-Ito told jurors about Spears.  

Spears' mother previously identified him to police when they showed her surveillance video, but the defense argued that she was coerced. On the witness stand in this trial, Spears' mother said she could not identify him in the videos.  

Spears would have faced life in prison if convicted.