Md. man convicted of burglary, conspiracy in fatal shooting case

MEDIA COURTHOUSE » A Maryland man was found guilty of burglary and conspiracy to burglary Friday for a Dec. 10, 2016, altercation in a home on the 800 block of Upland Street that resulted in the shooting death of 32-year-old Eric Chappell.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on five other counts against Rashad Daries Mosley, including aggravated assault, conspiracy and weapons charges. Those charges will be retried before Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Barry C. Dozor April 24. Sentencing for the two guilty counts has been set for the same day.

The jury heard from the shooter Wednesday, Brian Hammond, who testified that Chappell entered the house and began fighting with his fiancé’s brother, Ahad Smith.

Hammond, Smith, and smith’s sister, Brittani Smith, testified that during the course of the fight, Mosley, 30, of Baltimore, handed Chappell a gun.

Hammond claimed Chappell racked the slide on the .40 caliber Taurus semiautomatic handgun, pointed it at Smith’s chest and pulled the trigger, but the gun did not fire. Smith said Chappell hit him in the head with the weapon, never pointed it at him.

Hammond said he was able to get between Chappell and Ahad Smith in a hallway leading to a kitchen at the back to the house, but Chappell pushed him into a bathroom and continued to pursue Smith.

“I’m coming out of the bathroom, I yell, ‘Stop!’” said Hammond. “I see (Chappell), he’s coming around toward where Ahad is in the kitchen, raising his arm up.”

That was when Hammond said he drew his own 9 mm Smith and Wesson handgun, firing four shots at Chappell. Hammond is licensed to carry a concealed weapon and the shooting was later determined to be justified.

Smith told Assistant District Attorney Matt DeNucci that he did not see Chappell come around the corner of the hallway into the kitchen, but did see the gun raising up and Chappell’s arm moments before he was shot. Smith said he grabbed the gun from Chappell and ran out the back door.

“I didn’t know if he was going to get back up, I didn’t know if he was dead, none of that, so I grabbed the gun and I just left out the back door,” he said.

Defense attorney Stephen Sacks noted that Smith told police in a subsequent interview that he believed Chappell but was already dead at that point, however.

Hammond could be heard on a 911 call yelling for Smith to bring the gun back. Smith said he did return the gun and wiped his prints off it before placing it near Chappell.

Chester Detective Victor Heness said he had not heard that Smith wiped the gun until his testimony.

Heness said he was able to track a running car with Maryland plates that had been left outside the residence to a woman in Baltimore who told investigators she loaned the car to Mosley and Chappell.

Heness said DNA testing was performed on certain items left in the car, but Mosley could not by identified as a contributor.

Chappell is the brother of Smith’s child’s mother. He admitted their relationship had been troubled in the period leading up to Chappell’s death and that she had taken out a protection from abuse order on him.

Dozor noted the jurors had deliberated from about 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and again through the early afternoon Friday before declaring a deadlock on the remaining counts.

He ordered a presentence investigation on the two guilty counts. Mosley remains in custody in lieu of $500,000 cash bail.