Tyron Taylor V. James Baskin

On January 3, 2016, defendant James Baskin along with Tyron Taylor was accused of killing Larry Ellis Jr. The victim Larry Ellis Jr. was shot multiple times in the chest and was pronounced dead at the crime scene around 4:00 am. It was said the shooting took place because they were trying to rob him for drugs. Allegedly, Mr. Ellis gave Mr. Baskin a dipper which is a cigarette dipped in PCP. Mr. Ellis had a small bottle of PCP on him prior to the robbery and when robbed the bottle of PCP was in the sock of Mr. Tyron Taylor. It is not clear whether Taylor or Baskins who shot Mr. Ellis. A message was sent to the phone of Mr. Baskins stating “I’m omw” from Mr. Taylor. Mr. Baskins is a resident of the District of Columbia and Mr. Taylor is a resident

Before the jury was let back in, the judge wanted to know what witness was being called that day. The defense decided to call Tyrone Taylor as their witness. Tyrone Taylor is the accused man in connection with the murder of Larry Ellis Jr. Mr. Taylor lawyer was present and his lawyer had stipulations and ground rules before the Prince George's county police brought him out to stand as a witness. I never knew lawyers and judges talked openly about a case in front of the public. Tyrone Taylor’s lawyer public defender Richard E. Rydelek wanted to make sure nothing was going to be asked to self-incriminate his self from his rights of the Fifth Amendment. After that agreement was set, two policemen retrieved already incarcerated from behind the doors of the judge chambers. Once Tyrone Taylor sat down his lawyer Richard E. Rydelek wanted to guarantee in front of the judge again that nothing would be asked to self-incriminate his client. Judge Green then asked defense lawyer William H Porter Jr. what questions he was going to ask the witness and how many questions were there. Porter then told the judge and the judge put a cap on the questions he could ask. Rydelek then consulted with his client Taylor on what to say when the questions were being asked. After the lawyers agreed on the questions Porter then came back to ask the judge could he ask one more

He stated that the jury instructions for drugs would be thrown out and was not necessary to the case. Judge Green also added in the meaning of circumstantial evidence and how it connected to the presented case and what other cases backed up circumstantial evidence. He stated that this case was different for him and how he has toyed back and forth with this case deciding on how to rule it. He also mentioned how he has been with the circuit court for six to seven years and how it is different from District court. I was wondering why he kept mentioning that fact until I did some research on the case. The case was originally in the hands of District Court and then it got transferred to Circuit Court. After stating his years within in the Circuit Court he asked the judges were there anything else. Defense Attorney Porter then asked to approach the stand to show his evidence to the law clerk. He marked them as an exhibit for identification and showed the state then moved them into evidence. I thought this was weird because the juror was not in the courtroom and that piece of information was only seen by the judge and state lawyer. The two piece of evidence was the consent forms Mr. Baskin signed for the police to take a buccal swab and to search his phone for evidence. After everything was said and done, Defense lawyer Porter asked the