A man accused of leaving a half-way house to commit murder in Baltimore has been acquitted by a Baltimore Circuit Court jury, according to the city prosecutor's office.
Nolan L. Evans, 38, the son of death row inmate Vernon Lee Evans Jr., was charged after a witness came forward months after the April 2006 shooting of Larry Parks. Before issuing its verdict Tuesday night, jurors asked Circuit Judge Kaye A. Allison to allow them to review the videotape of the witness' testimony, a request the judge granted.
Evans' defense attorney, Nicole Love-Kelly, argued during the trial that her client could not have left the Volunteers of America's Comprehensive Sanction Center in East Baltimore, to shoot Parks on a Northwest Baltimore street. Residents at Volunteers of America can go to work and appointments but are not supposed to go out at night.
An April 2007 spot check of the facility concluded that 10 inmates were missing, the Sun reported. Two probationary employees were fired because they were suspected of taking bribes from those inmates.
The victim, Larry Parks, told Baltimore police before he died that "if I knew who shot me, I would not tell you. This is the way the street works," according to a Sun article.