A jury was selected in less than 3 1/2 hours on Monday in the trial of one of two men charged in the killing of Baltimore Police Officer Keona Holley, who had been ambushed and shot multiple times while in her patrol car in 2021 in Curtis Bay.

Elliot Knox, 34, of Mount Holly, is standing trial in Baltimore Circuit Court on charges including first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and related offenses.

Circuit Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer excused jurors before 1 p.m. and instructed them not to discuss the case. Assistant State’s Attorney Kurt Bjorklund and Natalie Finegar, Knox’s attorney, are set to deliver their opening statements on Tuesday.

Knox, police allege, told investigators that he was present when Travon Shaw fired the shots into Holley’s patrol car on Pennington Avenue near Hazel Street close to Curtis Bay Park at about 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 16, 2021.

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Holley, a two-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, was removed from life support one week later at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. She was 39.

Next, Knox told detectives, Shaw shot and killed Justin Johnson at about 3 a.m. when he was in his 1997 Lincoln Town Car on Lucia Avenue near Airy Hill Avenue in Yale Heights, police assert. He was 38.

During an interrogation, Knox, investigators allege, gave law enforcement the address to a home in Windsor Mill where he stated that he’d taken the handgun used in Holley’s killing as well as another weapon. Police obtained a search and seizure warrant for the house and reported that they found a Glock 22 with 11 cartridges and an Extar EXP-556 with 52 rounds in the main bedroom on the second floor.

Knox is also standing trial on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and related offenses in Johnson’s death.

In 2023, Shaw, 34, of Catonsville, was found guilty of first-degree murder and related crimes in Johnson’s killing. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on March 28, according to online court records.

Both Knox and Shaw are being held without bail.

Dylan Segelbaum

dylan.segelbaum@thebaltimorebanner.com

Dylan Segelbaum

Dylan Segelbaum is the courts reporter at The Baltimore Banner.

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