A jury deliberated for more than six hours on Tuesday without reaching a verdict in the trial of one of two men accused of killing Baltimore Police Officer Keona Holley and then fatally shooting a man in Southwest Baltimore.
Jurors met on Monday for more than two hours in the case of Elliot Knox, 34, of Mount Holly, who’s charged in Baltimore Circuit Court with two counts of first-degree murder and related offenses.
Assistant State’s Attorney Kurt Bjorklund argued that Knox fatally shot Holley, a two-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, as she sat in her patrol car on Pennington Avenue near Hazel Street in Curtis Bay before 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 16, 2021.
Holley died one week later at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center.
Next, Knox and another man, Travon Shaw, prosecutors contend, shot and killed Justin Johnson at about 3 a.m. as he sat in his 1997 Lincoln Town Car on Lucia Avenue near Airy Hill Avenue in Yale Heights.
Knox told homicide detectives that he was present at both crime scenes and hid two guns at a home in Baltimore County but denied pulling the trigger.
His attorney, Natalie Finegar, argued that her client essentially admitted to being an accessory after the fact to murder but was not liable in the killings.
Shaw, 34, of Catonsville, was found guilty in 2023 of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and related crimes in Johnson’s killing. He’s set to appear back in court on March 28.
Circuit Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer presided over the trial. Both Knox and Shaw are being held without bail.
