Baltimore boxer trial date set in December

Gervonta Davis charged in hit and run; plea denied

Baltimore boxing champion Gervonta Davis will go to trial Dec. 12 on hit-and-run charges after a Baltimore Circuit Court judge refused to approve a plea deal that would have included 60 days of unsupervised home detention.

Judge Melissa Phinn was moved by the objection of Jyair Smith, one of four alleged victims in the Nov. 2020 crash that led to the charges. Smith, who is also pursuing a civil case against Davis, said the boxer refused to help her at the scene of the accident, where she said she was trapped, screaming, in a smoking vehicle.

“He looked me in the eyes, and he never came over to help,” Smith said.

She added that her knee was severely wounded and that she’s still unable to play with her children or work normally after several rounds of physical therapy.

“Two months, I don’t feel like that is acceptable,” she said of the plea deal offered to Davis by state prosecutors.

“I don’t think this acceptable either,” said Phinn, ordering prosecutor David Owens and defense attorney Lawrence Rosenberg to agree on a trial date.

Davis, 27, had planned to accept the plea deal. He pushed his record to 27-0 on May 28 with a knockout of Rolando Romero to defend his WBA lightweight championship, and though his next fight is not scheduled, he has hinted it could be in December against Ryan Garcia.

Owens said none of the other three alleged victims in the crash, all of whom have reached civil settlements with Davis, objected to the proposed plea deal.

Neither Davis’ primary defense attorney, Michael Tomko (Rosenberg’s law partner), nor a spokesperson for the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office replied to calls seeking comment on Phinn’s decision.

Baltimore Police said Davis was traveling in a 2020 Lamborghini Urus SUV southbound on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at around 1:50 a.m. on Nov. 5, 2020, when he ran a red light and struck a 2004 Toyota Solara. An incident report said the Solara’s air bags deployed and it was “destroyed.”

The Lamborghini struck a fence and was “disabled,” the report said, and the occupants abandoned the luxury SUV and fled on foot.

“The occupants of Vehicle 1 fled location after the crash but the driver was later identified as Gervonta Bryant Davis,” police wrote, citing witnesses and video surveillance footage.

Prosecutors said witness accounts and video gathered during the investigation showed Davis leaving the scene in a black Camaro.

Davis’ trial in December is expected to last two days.