Jaime Malarkey, The Examiner
2007-09-20
BALTIMORE - A Baltimore judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in a case against two men accused of attempted murder and witness intimidation after a juror said she felt intimidated herself and refused to deliberate.
The abrupt end to the trial of Yusef Winston-Bey and Victor Shuron, who are accused of gunning down a man who planned to testify against them in a Baltimore City case days later — came after the jury passed Judge Robert Kershaw a note indicating one of them felt too “scared” to continue.
The female juror was waiting for a bus outside the circuit courthouse after a full day of deliberations Tuesday when she spotted two men she recognized from the courtroom during the trial, according to the note. She said one pointed and she could read his lips saying, “There goes one of them right there.”
“She says that now she doesn’t want to vote on the charges that are left one way or the other,” the jury foreman wrote.
The trial, which started last Thursday, will begin anew Dec. 13, though jurors indicated they had reached agreements on some of the charges against Winston-Bey and Shuron, who allegedly shot Donnie Hill after following him in a van into the Waverly Shopping Center on Greenmount Avenue on Nov. 27, 2006.
The jurors agreed they “can’t come to an agreement on the last couple of charges left unanswered,” according to the note.
Mark Van Bavel, attorney for Shuron, called the halt “a great big disappointment.” Winston-Bey’s attorney, Margaret Mead, said the two men spotted by the juror were not associated with her client.
The attorneys said the suspects had credible alibis: A clerk at a Towson pool hall testified she sold Winston-Bey a lottery ticket at the time of the shooting.
Family members testified Shuron was in New York that day.
Prosecutor Doug Guidorizzi called Hill the “only credible witness who saw what happened.”
“They made eye contact,” Guidorizzi said. “He had just seen those eyes moments before on Victor Shuron’s face moments before the shooting.”
Examiner
Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun
Mistrial declared in attempted murder case
By a Sun reporter
September 20, 2007
A Baltimore Circuit Court judge yesterday declared a mistrial in an attempted murder and witness intimidation case after a juror said two men who were watching the proceedings saw her later at a bus stop and scared her, according to the city prosecutors.
The news came in the form of a handwritten note from the jury forewoman to Judge Robert Kershaw during the second day of deliberations in the trial of Yusef Winston-Bey, 27, and Victor Shuron, 30. They are charged in the Nov. 27, 2006, shooting of a witness in a Baltimore County homicide.
"She states that she couldn't hear what they said, but they pointed and she could read his lips saying, 'There goes one of them right there,'" the note from the forewoman says, recounting the unnamed juror's concerns. "She says that now she doesn't want to vote on the charges."
In a city in which prosecutors have long complained that witness intimidation hampers murder cases, a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office said implied threats against a juror are unusual. This case is under investigation.
"It is very frustrating when we present evidence of intimidation only to learn that even the jurors are reluctant to move forward," said Margaret T. Burns, the spokeswoman.
Winston-Bey's attorney, Margaret Mead, said she asked for a mistrial "because I felt the note was going to taint the entire jury." But she said there is no evidence that the two men at the bus stop are related to or are friends with either defendant, or that their actions were meant to intimidate.
"I think the juror got nervous," Mead said. "It bothered her the way these guys acted. What bothers me is that the state is trying to use this to bolster their position of witness intimidation. It is creating hysteria in the minds of jurors. Anytime anyone feels uncomfortable, now all of a sudden it is witness intimidation or juror intimidation, when that is not what it is."
Police had charged Winston-Bey and Shuron with shooting Donnie Hill, 34, on the parking lot of the Waverly Shopping Center. Authorities said the shooting was an attempt to prevent Hill from testifying in a Baltimore County murder case. Prosecutors have since dropped the county murder charge against Shuron; the murder case against Winston-Bey is pending in Baltimore County.
Mead said her client could not have been involved with Hill's shooting because he had been playing pool at the shopping center and had bought a time-stamped lottery ticket eight minutes before the incident. She said jurors told her they had voted to acquit Winston-Bey and Shuron of most charges when the mistrial was declared.
A new trial date has been set for December 13, 2007.
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