Baltimore man tried four times for same killing sees all charges dropped

A Baltimore man who stood trial four times for the same killing had all charges against him dropped on Friday.

Davis maintained his innocence.

Jones was shot and killed on 7 June 2015, at the Pimlico track in north-east Baltimore. A few hours later, a taxi driver told police officers an individual had attempted to rob him at gunpoint. Police chased Davis, firing 33 rounds as he ran to a garage. Three shots hit him, including in his face.

Upon surrendering, Davis told authorities he did not have a gun and had been misidentified as the suspect sought by police. Authorities said they found a gun on top of a refrigerator behind which Davis sought cover. Davis maintained fingerprints on the gun did not belong to him and that he ran away from police because he saw them running towards him and was afraid.

Davis went to trial in 2016, on armed robbery charges. He and his attorneys argued that police planted the gun to cover their tracks after allegedly shooting an unarmed person by mistake. Later testimony by the taxi driver revealed that Davis did not look like the individual the driver said attempted to rob him.

Davis was found not guilty of all charges except illegal gun possession, which he denied. He was handed a five-year jail sentence.

Approximately a week later, Davis was charged with murder, after prosecutors claimed the weapon found on Davis was connected to the Pimlico shooting.

Davis underwent four trials, all of which resulted in mistrial or overturned convictions of second-degree murder. A fifth trial was scheduled for May, before the charges were dropped on Friday.