Jury picked for murder trial of officer, second victim
A jury has been selected to decide the fate of a man charged with the 2021 fatal shootings of Baltimore Police Officer Keona Holley and 27-year-old Justin Johnson.
Elliott Knox, 34, faces two counts each of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and use of a firearm in a crime of violence, among other gun charges.
His defense attorney and the prosecutor began choosing the jury Monday morning and completed the process by about midday. The panel consists of 12 jurors and four alternates.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer is presiding over the trial, which is scheduled for up to three weeks. It is expected to begin with opening statements Tuesday morning.
The fatal shootings of Holley and Johnson happened in the early morning of Dec. 16, 2021, about 8 miles and less than two hours apart. Police and prosecutors to date have shared little in the way of motive for Holley’s killing, but it’s possible that Knox’s trial could provide some insight.
“Mr. Knox has waited a very long time to explain what happened that evening,” his attorney, Natalie Finegar, told The Baltimore Sun ahead of trial, declining to comment further.
A jury in October convicted Travon Shaw, the other man charged in the killings, of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence, along with other gun offenses, in Johnson’s death. Shaw, 34, is due back in court in March for sentencing, where he faces life in prison.
Shaw is supposed to go to trial March 28 for charges stemming from Holley’s killing, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
Working overtime in the Curtis Bay area that morning, Holley was ambushed and shot in her patrol vehicle, according to authorities. Fellow Baltimore Police officers responded around 1:30 a.m. to find Holley unresponsive behind the wheel of the cruiser. She had been shot four times, with bullets
twice striking her in the head.
A 39-year-old mother of four, Holley died at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center about a week later. She had become a police officer to help improve her community, family, friends and
colleagues recalled after her death.
Police got a call about gunfire in Southwest Baltimore around 3 a.m. the same morning Holley was shot. Responding officers found Johnson unresponsive in his 1997 Lincoln Town Car, sitting in the 600 block of
Lucia Avenue in the Yale Heights neighborhood. Paramedics pronounced Johnson, who had been shot several times, dead at the scene.
By reviewing surveillance footage from the area of Holley’s shooting, detectives identified a suspect car that was registered to Knox, according to charging documents. Firearm examiners also analyzed cartridge casings recovered during the investigation, determining the same gun fired the .40 caliber casings found at both scenes.
Police and prosecutors also said Knox confessed in an interview with detectives, saying his accomplice was the only shooter. He also directed police to a house where he stored the guns used in the shootings.
Detectives found the guns when they searched the residence, according to court records. Firearms examiners found that the .40 caliber handgun investigators confiscated fired the casings of the same caliber found at both scenes. Officers also located .223 caliber casings near Johnson’s car and examiners said the gun of the same caliber recovered by detectives had fired those rounds.
The two men’s historical cellphone GPS data showed they were in the areas of both shootings at the time both occurred, police and prosecutors wrote in court documents.