The group of teenagers throwing eggs at a Dundalk house in 2004 never dreamed their
childish prank would end in murder.
In Baltimore County Circuit Court Wednesday, witnesses told the jury that egging a house led to the fatal drive-by shooting of great-grandfather George King, 76, whom police described as an innocent victim who “happened to be walking down the street when the shots were fired.”
One of the teens, Joseph Fleming, told jurors his friend apologized to a woman they struck while throwing eggs the evening of Oct. 30, but she became enraged.
“He kept saying, ?I?m sorry. I?m sorry.? He probably said sorry almost 100 times,” Fleming said.
As the teenagers later congregated at a friend?s house, Jose Antonio Bassat, 30, and Jose Emmanuel Otero, 24, drove to Avondale Road at the request of a friend who said his home ? where the woman lived ? had been “attacked” by a group of teens, police said.
When Otero and Bassat arrived, the friend pointed to a group standing near the house and Bassat fired several shots from a handgun into the crowd as the
suspects drove off, according to police.
King was hit in the leg and bled extensively. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A woman who happened to be driving along the street during the shooting testified Wednesday in Bassat?s first-degree murder trial.
Kia Bean said she saw King lying on the ground and stopped to see if he was OK.
“He tried to answer,” she said. “He huffed and blood started coming out of his mouth.”
Otero has already pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison on that charge and 20 years incarceration on use of a handgun in commission of a violent crime, according to court records.
Bassat?s trial is expected to last several days.
