SALISBURY, Md - A Wicomico County jury on Thursday will decide the fate of 19-year-old Jarrett Stokes. Stokes, of Delmar, Md., is facing 17 charges, including first-degree murder, in the deadly shooting of a Fruitland teenager last August in Salisbury.
Police say Jarrett Stokes, along with Larry Ennis and Ky'shir Connally, are responsible for the death of 17-year-old Rakim Russell. Russell was shot outside of the America's Best Value Inn on Route 13 in Salisbury. According to court documents, investigators determined that Connally and Ennis, who were involved in an earlier altercation at a party at the hotel and had "outstanding issues" with the majority of those in attendance, drove back to the hotel with Stokes. It was there that Stokes, who was in the passenger seat of a white Chevrolet Impala, allegedly used a semi-automatic handgun to fire approximately four shots at the crowd in the parking lot with one of the bullets striking Russell in the head, court documents said.
Additionally, another one of the bullets fired by Stokes entered an occupied hotel room and the projectile from this shot hit several objects before it came to rest at the foot of a bed in which a man was lying, the court documents state.
On Wednesday, the prosecution called its star witness to the stand, the driver of the white Impala. That man has already pleaded guilty to three charges including conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. In exchange for testifying against the other three defendants in the case, the driver will serve 15 years behind bars.
The driver of that car testified Wednesday that Stokes was the trigger man in this case. He testified Stokes fired four shots into the crowd and the four men in the car learned later that night one of the shots have hit and killed Russell.
However, the defense has argued Stokes had no involvement in the shooting. One of the defense's witnesses called to the stand on Wednesday said he was with Stokes all night long last August. He said Stokes never got into the Impala with the other three young men and was certainly not the man who fired the shots into the crowd.
Larry Ennis has already been tried and found guilty and Ky'Shir Connally is set to have his trial begin next week.
The jury will hear closing arguments Thursday morning and then begin deliberations.
