Witnesses Donta Robinson and Jamal Carter had once identified alleged cop killer Brandon Grimes as the man who carjacked them at gunpoint.
But Monday both men drastically changed their stories.
“I ain’t never seen that person in my life,” Carter said.
“I never told police that,” Robinson testified.
The two witnesses were the first called by Baltimore City prosecutors during pretrial motions against Grimes, 23, who is accused of killing off-duty Baltimore Police Detective Troy Chesley during a botched robbery.
But the men provided little help to police, telling Judge Timothy Doory that officers had pressured them into identifying Grimes as their assailant, when they couldn’t be sure who attacked them.
Robinson even went so far as to say detectives “harassed” him and his family so much he intended to lie on the witness stand.
“I said I was going to lie to mess the case up,” he testified.
Prosecutors were seeking to convince Doory to allow the jury considering Chesley’s slaying to hear evidence from the carjacking, which happened days earlier near the Northwest Baltimore scene of the officer’s death.
Though Doory said he believed Grimes committed the carjacking, he said evidence from that crime would be too prejudicial for the jury to hear.
He also gave the two witnesses a tongue-lashing.
“The people who testified here today could not convince me it’s Monday,” the judge said. “I don’t know of whom they are afraid. I don’t know with whom they’re angry. I do know what they said on the witness stand was totally and completely not believable.”
Grimes’ attorney, Roland Walker, also dropped a bombshell on the court when he alleged he had evidence that Chesley and Grimes were dating the same woman. The officer’s family shook their heads in disbelief during those comments. Prosecutor Kevin Wiggins asked the judge to bar any reference to that allegation.
“It’s highly inflammatory,” Wiggins said.
“It would be insulting to the deceased,” the judge said, before saying he would allow the defense.
“I suggest you tread lightly,” he warned Walker.
Grimes is accused of fatally shooting Chesley on Jan. 9, 2007. Before dying, Chesley also shot Grimes, and police tracked down the suspect within hours at St. Agnes Hospital, where he was undergoing treatment for a gunshot wound, court documents state.
Jury selection in the case is expected to begin today in Baltimore City Circuit Court.
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