By Tricia Bishop
4:03 p.m. EDT, May 9, 2012
Baltimore prosecutors have dropped half of the charges filed against four young people accused in a St. Patrick's Day attack on a tourist, whose brutal beating and robbery was videotaped and widely viewed online.
Aaron Jacob Parsons, 20; Shayona Mikia Davis, 20; Shatia Baldwin, 21; and Deangelo Carter, 19, were each charged in with first-degree assault in the incident, in which an Alexandria, Va. man was battered, stripped of his clothes and left unconscious in front of the Baltimore circuit courthouse on North Calvert Street.
But the city state’s attorneys’ office has since dropped those charges and whittled many others over the past three weeks. In all, 13 out of 24 charges have been removed.
“The court commissioner filed the original list of charges in this case, and we modified the list to reflect our assessment of the alleged illegal conduct,” said Mark Cheshire, a spokesman for the prosecutors’ office.
Three of the defendants have hearings scheduled in district court next week. Davis, who was originally charged with armed robbery for using a high-heeled shoe as a weapon, was set to appear Wednesday. But her hearing was canceled after city prosecutors filed a criminal information in the case, moving it from the lower district court to circuit court.
The videotaped attack shocked viewers and police, who used the recording to track down the defendants, the last of whom was arrested April 25. The video appears to show an unprovoked assault on an intoxicated tourist, who later told police he was trying to get back to his Mount Vernon hotel. He was robbed of his iPhone, a $1,300 watch and the key to his Audi, police said.
Parsons, a party promoter from Rosedale, was originally charged with eight crimes in the incident, but three of them have been cut, including the first-degree assault, conspiracy to commit first-degree assault and reckless endangerment. Remaining are robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, second-degree assault, conspiracy to commit second-degree assault and theft charges.
Davis, who lives in Baltimore, is now charged only with second-degree assault, after first-degree assault, robbery and armed robbery charges were dropped.
Baldwin, of Brooklyn, is now charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, theft and second-degree assault, after four other charges were dropped: first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, conspiracy to commit first-degree assault and conspiracy to commit second-degree assault.
A single charge of second-degree assault remains against Carter, who lives in Baltimore. Prosecutors declined to pursue armed robbery, robbery, and first-degree assault charges.
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