Murder Trial: Officials urge patience, respect in Baltimore

June 23, 2016 11:39 am

By News Staff

news@abc6.com

11:15 a.m.

Officials and residents are reacting to the acquittal of the police van driver on all charges in the death of Freddie Gray.

State Sen. Catherine Pugh is the Democratic nominee in Baltimore’s mayor race. She issued a statement Thursday after the judge gave his verdict. The statement urges residents to be patient. It says: “Protests are a vital part of democracy, but to destroy the homes and businesses many people have worked very hard to build is unacceptable. … It is important to respect each other and to respect our neighborhoods.”

Gray’s death last year set off protests and violence.

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s office also issued a statement. It says he respects the legal process and verdict. It notes that “over the past year, the people of Baltimore city have made tremendous progress in rebuilding their communities and businesses.”

Outside the courthouse, a small group of protesters chanted before the verdict: “We can’t stop. We won’t stop, till killer cops are in cell blocks.”

10:50 a.m.

A judge has found a Baltimore Police van driver not guilty of all charges in the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, whose broken neck in police custody set off Baltimore’s worst riots in decades.

Six officers were charged in Gray’s death, but only Officer Caesar Goodson was accused of murder. Gray was fatally injured after officers bound his hands and feet and Goodson left him unprotected by a seat belt that prosecutors say would have kept him from slamming into the van’s metal walls. Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams delivered his verdict Thursday after hearing five days of testimony in the non-jury trial. He found Goodson not guilty of “depraved-heart” murder, manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment.

Protests and rioting after Gray’s death on April 19, 2015 set the city on fire, forcing Maryland to bring in the National Guard. The unrest forced the city’s mayor to abandon her re-election campaign, and the Department of Justice opened an investigation into allegations of widespread police abuse. ___

10 a.m.

Judge Barry Williams has weighed six counts against Officer Caesar Goodson in the death of Freddie Gray.

Murder carries the toughest penalty _ 30 years in prison. A conviction would require the judge to decide that Goodson did, “with malice aforethought, kill and murder” the arrestee in the back of his van.

Goodson also was charged with assault, carrying a 10-year sentence; three counts of manslaughter, punishable by up to 10 years; reckless endangerment, punishable by 5 years; and misconduct in office, the penalty for which is left up to the judge. ___

9:30 a.m.

A handful of demonstrators and many photographers and videographers are gathered outside a Baltimore courthouse to await a verdict in the trial of one of the six Baltimore police officers charged in the arrest and death of a young, black man.

A judge is expected to announce his decision Thursday on the charges Caesar Goodson faces, including murder. Goodson is charged in the death last year of Freddie Gray, who was a passenger in Goodson’s detainee transport van.

Officer William Porter’s case ended in a mistrial, while Officer Edward Nero was acquitted. Porter and three other officers have trials scheduled this summer and fall.

Nero arrived at the courthouse Thursday amid security from sheriff’s deputies, who went inside with him.

Demonstrators’ signs read, “Justice for Freddie Gray,” “Jail Killer Police” and “Stop the War on Black America.”