Although prosecutors in the murder trial against Davon Holmes have found no motive or explanation as to why Marcellus Terrell Bailey was killed, they expect witnesses to testify at trial that they saw Holmes stab Bailey in the neck in August 2011. But Holmes’ defense attorney, James Beane, argued Tuesday that the government’s version of events is built on “a house of maybes.”
Jurors heard these opening statements Tuesday morning in the murder trial against Holmes, 28, who is charged with the stabbing death of 24-year-old Marcellus Bailey.
According to prosecutors, in the early morning hours of August 3, 2011, a witness saw Holmes and Bailey “talking and laughing” together on the corner of 8th and Jefferson Street Northwest, when Holmes suddenly swung at Bailey, stabbing him in the neck.
Bailey bled profusely. He was found injured by police around 2:45 a.m. He later died at the hospital.
“Crime scene photographs corroborate what the witnesses saw,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kate Rakoczy told the court. “Witnesses were out there that night, and they saw [Davon Holmes] stab Marcellus in his neck, causing his death.”
Prosecutors say that cell phone records place Holmes at the scene of the crime; and a witness who called 911 shortly after the stabbing testified Tuesday that she saw Holmes “around the neighborhood” just before Bailey was stabbed.
But James Beane, Holmes’ defense attorney, argued that the government had no proof as to what truly occurred that Wednesday morning.
“They have to prove that what they believe happened,” Beane said. “Bring me some DNA. Bring me the fingerprints. They can’t.”
“Their case is built with weak bricks,” he said.
The trial is scheduled to resume Wednesday in Judge Ronna Beck’s courtroom.
Correction: A previous version of this story reported there was a party on the corner of 8th and Jefferson the morning Bailey was killed. That has been corrected.
