Several high-profile court cases in Maryland this year made national headlines — from more twists and turns in the legal saga of Adnan Syed to allegations that a man impersonated a high school principal using artificial intelligence.

The Baltimore Banner will continue reporting on these and other notable cases in Baltimore and the surrounding counties.

Here are five cases we’re watching in 2025:

Tyler Mailloux

The death of Gavin Knupp reverberated throughout the tight-knit communities of Ocean City and Ocean Pines.

On July 11, 2022, Gavin asked his older sister, Summer, to pull over so he could take a video of a taxidermied buck head on the side of the road. He was fatally struck on Grays Corner Road near Riddle Lane while walking back to her car.

He was 14.

More than nine months later, the Worcester County State’s Attorney’s Office charged Tyler Mailloux in the crash.

Law enforcement alleges that Mailloux left the scene and kept the 2011 Mercedes-Benz C300 that he was driving in a garage.

The case has taken some twists.

In 2023, Circuit Judge Brett W. Wilson granted a motion to dismiss, ruling the state’s attorney filed the case in the wrong court. But the Appellate Court of Maryland overturned that decision and reinstated the charges.

Mailloux, 24, of Berlin, is scheduled to stand trial on March 3 in Worcester County Circuit Court on 17 counts, including failure to stop at the scene of an accident.

Dazhon Darien

Listeners across the United States heard what sounded like the voice of Pikeville High School Principal Eric Eiswert making racist and antisemitic remarks behind closed doors.

Baltimore County Public Schools launched an investigation and temporarily removed Eiswert from his position.

But then experts concluded the audio clip was an artificial intelligence deepfake. And Baltimore County Police later arrested and charged the former athletic director at the high school, Dazhon Darien.

Eiswert told investigators he spoke to Darien about not renewing his contract the next semester because of “frequent work performance challenges.”

Police allege Eiswert had also initiated an investigation into Darien related to allegations of theft.

A Baltimore Banner investigation found Darien had a history of making false claims on job applications and résumés, including what he submitted to Baltimore County Public Schools. He also did not possess the credentials required to hold his jobs with the school system.

Eiswert is now principal at Sparrows Point Middle School in Edgemere. He’s fighting a subpoena for his personnel file, which his attorneys have called an attempt to “harass, embarrass, and otherwise further retaliate against him.”

Assistant Public Defender Jasmine Hope, Darien’s attorney, contends an expert report “does not indicate that the voice in the recording is not human.”

Instead, Hope asserts, the report found only that the audio had been altered. She claims “nothing outside of the witness’ denial proves the voice in the recording is not that of Mr. Eiswert.”

Darien, 32, of Greektown, is set to stand trial Jan. 28 in Baltimore County Circuit Court on charges of disrupting school activities, stalking, retaliating against a witness and related offenses.

Victor Martinez-Hernandez

On Aug. 5, 2023, Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five who ran a house cleaning business, went missing while out for a walk on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air.

Her body was discovered the next day.

Law enforcement entered DNA recovered from her body into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, and matched it to a man who was wanted in Los Angeles for a home invasion and assault. But detectives did not know his name.

Investigators reported that they used genetic genealogy to identify the killer: Victor Martinez-Hernandez.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection captured Martinez-Hernandez three times in 2023 after he illegally crossed the border. He’s accused of killing a different woman in his native El Salvador before entering the United States again.

The FBI and Tulsa Police arrested Martinez-Hernandez at a bar more than 10 months after Morin’s death. He waived extradition from Oklahoma to Maryland and was flown to Martin State Airport, where a crowd of reporters and police officers awaited.

The case has received national attention. Morin’s mother, Patty, campaigned with President-elect Donald Trump and testified before Congress. Morin’s brother, Michael, spoke during the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Martinez-Hernandez, 24, is set on April 1 to stand trial in Harford County Circuit Court on charges of first- and second-degree murder and related offenses.

The Harford County State’s Attorney’s Office has filed notice of its intention to seek life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Adnan Syed

In 2022, Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa M. Phinn granted a motion to throw out the conviction of Adnan Syed, the subject of the hit podcast “Serial,” and ordered him to be released from prison immediately.

Syed, now 43, was found guilty in 2000 in Baltimore Circuit Court of first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping and false imprisonment. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years in the killing of Hae Min Lee, his ex-girlfriend and classmate at Woodlawn High School.

Her body was discovered on Feb. 9, 1999, in Leakin Park.

At the time of the killing, Syed was 17. He has always maintained his innocence.

In a 2-1 opinion, the Appellate Court of Maryland moved to reinstate Syed’s conviction. The Maryland Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision upheld that ruling and ordered a new hearing before a different judge.

The state’s highest court concluded the rights of Young Lee, Hae Min Lee’s brother, were violated.

Syed has been allowed to remain free pending the new hearing.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer is now presiding over the case. She’s given prosecutors until Feb. 28 to file anything supplemental.

Meanwhile, Syed’s attorneys, Erica Suter and Brian Zavin, have filed a motion to reduce his sentence under the Juvenile Restoration Act. The law created a process for those who’ve served at least 20 years in prison for crimes they committed as children to get back into court and show they’ve changed.

Suter is director of the Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Zavin is the chief attorney of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender’s Appellate Division.

No hearing dates have been set.

The Child Victims Act of 2023

The Maryland Supreme Court will rule whether a law that eliminated the time limit for survivors of child sexual abuse to file lawsuits and made it easier for them to sue institutions that enabled their victimization is constitutional.

The justices heard oral argument Sept. 10 about the Child Victims Act of 2023.

Since the law took effect on Oct. 1, 2023, people have filed lawsuits against places including schools, churches and state-run juvenile detention centers.

It’s unclear when the state’s top court will issue a ruling.

But retired Maryland Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera established a precedent for the court to issue decisions no later than the first Aug. 31 after hearing oral argument.

Other cases

• Brandon Russell, 29, of Orlando, Florida, the founder of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 27 in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on one count of conspiracy to damage an energy facility. He’s accused of plotting to attack the power grid in Maryland.
• Lisa Adrienne Lea, 56, of Ednor Gardens-Lakeside, is set to stand trial April 28 in Baltimore County Circuit Court on six counts of criminally negligent manslaughter. She’s one of two drivers to face prosecution in a crash that happened on Interstate 695 on March 22, 2023, that killed six highway workers.
• Matthew Schlegel, 44, of Severna Park, a teacher at Severna Park Elementary, is expected to stand trial May 19 in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court on charges of sexual abuse of a minor and related offenses. He’s accused of sexually abusing eight students.