Kendal Holt, Cameran's sister, was convicted of sending threatening text messages to a witness after the witness testified during the homicide trial of Alexis Cancel-Soto, Bates said.
Mustafa Pitts, 48, was found guilty on July 16 of two counts of sexual abuse of a minor, and faced a total penalty of 55 years in prison, the state's attorney said previously.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates taking office in 2023 coincided with the beginning of the crime decline, and his crackdown on illegal guns became the cornerstone of his work.
We came in with 140 prosecutors. We now have 200. We’d love to get more money from the city to have even more, and to get raises for the prosecutors here now, because they’re a golden commodity and they’re going to be offered jobs. So, the first thing is to continue to stabilize the office.
“The harm caused by former Officer Curlon Edwards was profound, and no one—especially someone entrusted with authority—has the right to abuse their position and violate another person,” Bates said. “We hope this outcome affirms the survivor’s courage in coming forward and reinforces that our office will stand with victims, pursue accountability, and work to ensure their voices are heard.”
State's Attorney Ivan Bates talks about rebuilding State's Attorney's Office, combating crime (VIDEO).
His first three years in office have been largely defined by the remarkable decrease in gun violence in the city. It’s a stark reversal of predecessor Marilyn Mosby’s eight years in office, when Baltimore recorded more than 300 killings each year.
The data challenges have led to disputes over whether youth crime is actually decreasing. After another nonprofit, The Sentencing Project, released a 2024 report showing drops in youth arrests, Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates criticized the organization in an op-ed saying that the report did “not accurately represent my office’s data or the experiences of Baltimore City’s residents.”
It’s unclear how many of those children were being held in the custody of the state Department of Juvenile Services while their cases were stalled. But the figure Taylor cited represents about 12% of juvenile cases in Baltimore this year, according to the Office of Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates. “It’s one of our biggest problems here, just getting cases to trial,” Pamela Chung, chief of Bates’ Juvenile Division, said in an interview.
