Basketball standout guilty in murder trial
The first defendant to go to trial in the shooting death of a Fruitland teenager after a hotel party was found guilty by a Wicomico County jury on Thursday, Feb. 17.
Larry Ennis, 20, of Salisbury, was guilty on all counts, prosecutors said. Among the charges Ennis faced in the fatal shooting of Rakim Russell, 17, was first-degree murder. The shooting happened in the early morning of Aug. 2 outside the Americas Best Value Inn in Salisbury.
Ennis, whom testimony showed was a passenger in the vehicle from which another person shot Russell, had excelled at basketball in high school and had planned to continue playing at the community college level.
'The beef ends tonight,' witness says in murder trial
The next defendant scheduled to go to trial in connection with Russell's death is the man named during court as the shooter: Jarrett Stokes. Stokes, 19, of Delmar, faces charges of first-degree murder and related charges and is scheduled for a three-day trial beginning March 1.
The trial for Ky'Shir Connally, 18, of Delmar, who is also charged with first-degree murder and related charges, is scheduled to follow soon after, beginning March 8.
In Maryland, a person can be convicted of murder without having to be the one who pulled the trigger.
Marquel Pinder, 21, of Hebron, the driver of the vehicle, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and two other counts in September.
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