Several charges against the 22-year-old accused of firing 21 shots into a crowded Columbia Halloween party — killing one young man and paralyzing another — have been dismissed.
On Dec. 1, Howard County District Court Judge Pamila Brown dismissed the counts related to the shooting and paralyzing of Nathaniel Quick, 22, of Columbia.
Brown found during a preliminary hearing that no probable cause existed for police to accuse Devon Dixon, 22, of Elkridge, of shooting the bullets that left Quick paralyzed, though the judge found that probable cause did exist for police to accuse Dixon of shooting and killing another partygoer, Aaron Brice, 19, of Silver Spring, according to prosecutors.
“The judge decided there was no probable cause” in Quick’s case, Howard County Assistant State’s Attorney Kim Oldham said.
Although I have to wonder what the judge was thinking, it sounds like the Howard County Police Department really dropped the ball on this one. If I were County Executive, I would be more concerned about finding out what happened in the Police Department rather than harassing the homeowners with petty violations:
Dixon’s attorney Tony Garcia said he argued for dismissal of the charges because he felt the police department’s statement of charges provided little evidence linking his client to Quick’s injuries.
“There was almost nothing mentioned about Mr. Quick,” Garcia said of the statement of charges presented in court. “My interest isn’t to grandstand or punish the state’s attorney’s office. My client’s life is on the line. To take the bare minimalist approach certainly doesn’t speak highly of how they value this person that was killed. I don’t believe it’s anyone’s fault, per se. I believe it’s the state as a whole. When you don’t even produce crumbs, you can’t have us deduce there was once a sandwich.”
2 comments:
Give me a break. No defendant's life is on the line in the state of Maryland. Probable cause? There's too much subjectivity being thrown at probable cause in the court room. The police are pressured into making arrests. The guy with the smoking gun is usually a good suspect, oh, sorry, person of interst. This kind of nonsense fires me up.
ELUDIUS... well as I do agree that the man with the smoking gun is the person of interest... let me ask you this, was Devon found with the 'smoking gun'? ABSOLUTELY NOT... out of 100 witnesses only ONE stated Devon was even at the party....Howard County didnt drop the ball.. they jumped to conclusion and were WRONG. Evidence will speak for itself in this matter. Devon OFFERED GSR to the police... as well as DNA. They took it... and what GUILTY man OFFERS this type of evidence? Be real- they have the wrong guy
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