BALTIMORE — Keith Davis Jr., who has been tried four times in the killing of a Pimlico security guard, rejected a plea offer Tuesday and heads to a fifth murder trial.
Baltimore prosecutors offered Davis a term of 50 years in prison with all but 15 suspended in exchange for his plea in two criminal cases. One case involves an alleged jailhouse fight in June 2020; the other the murder of Kevin Jones in June 2015.
During a 10-minute hearing Tuesday in Baltimore Circuit Court, Davis, 30, rejected the offer.
Davis’ public defender, Deborah Katz Levi, said after the hearing that prosecutors offered her client a chance to submit Alford pleas, which allow a defendant to maintain innocence while acknowledging there is enough evidence to convict.
A spokeswoman for the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Prosecutors routinely offer plea deals before murder trials and they had offered Davis a plea deal of 50 years with all but 30 years suspended before his fourth murder trial.
His case has become a rallying cry for activists in Baltimore who maintain Davis is innocent. His supporters have protested against Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby for her repeated attempts to convict him of the murder.
His first trial in 2017 resulted in a hung jury. A conviction in his second trial was overturned. His third trial brought another hung jury. Then he was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison, but his case was overturned again. The legal saga has dragged on for six years.
Now, he’s to be tried a fifth time, scheduled for May, for the murder of Jones. The Pimlico security guard was gunned down in the early morning while walking to work.
Last May, prosecutors filed new charges against Davis over a jailhouse fight that was almost a year old. The charges further escalated tensions between Mosby’s office and a vocal crowd of Davis’ supporters.
His supporters, led by his wife, Kelly Davis, have held rallies, protest marches and hounded Mosby with calls to “Free Keith Davis Jr.!” Mosby stirred up controversy last year when a cellphone camera captured her giving the finger to a man who confronted her at a waterfront bar with a shout of “Free Keith Davis Jr.!”
The nonprofit of Baltimore activist DeRay Mckesson has taken up Davis’ cause and produced a website examining evidence in the case.
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