Attorneys spar over witness’ credibility in trial for death of 7-year-old Taylor Hayes

In the days and weeks after 7-year-old Taylor Hayes was shot — a bullet piercing her tiny frame while she rode through Southwest Baltimore in the backseat of her godmother’s Honda — leaders decried the city’s “no snitching” culture.

There was someone out there, they insisted, with information about who had shot a little girl who loved purple and the Disney movie “Frozen.” They had a duty to come forward.

Malik Edison didn’t do so right away, even though he witnessed what happened as a passenger in the Honda. He said he didn’t know anything when approached by officers at the scene, and Edison initially didn’t go to the cops even as the mayor, city councilmen and the police commissioner begged for answers.

On Friday, Edison testified in the trial for the man charged with fatally shooting Taylor. He struggled at first to articulate why he hadn’t stepped forward in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

“Essentially, was it fear of being labelled a snitch?” Assistant State’s Attorney Matt Pillion asked him on the stand.

“Yes,” Edison replied.

But now, a little more than a year after the shooting, Edison was clear about what he saw on that hot summer day

“Who shot Taylor Hayes?” Pillion asked.

“Keon Gray,” Edison answered.

Gray, 30, faces 32 counts including murder. Prosecutors say he was driving a white Mercedes on July 5 and exchanged gunfire with a passenger in the front seat of the Honda — Edison.

Edison faces his own gun charges.

After the shootout, the Mercedes drove off and crashed nearby. Prosecutors said DNA evidence on the airbag matched Gray.

Gray’s defense attorney, Ken Ravenell, said the evidence is insufficient and that prosecutors are building their case on the testimony of witnesses who can’t be trusted. He said different witnesses identified other people as the gunman.

Ravenell tried Friday to discredit Edison on the stand, pressing him on the fact that he was slow to come forward to police, had previously filed a complaint against an assistant state’s attorney and was testifying as part of a plea deal.

During a contentious line of questioning, Ravenell went through the signed plea deal page by page. He said it has the potential to reduce Edison’s prison sentence — police found heroin and a scale in the Honda, along with a gun — from 14 years to 14 months. To get the deal, Edison had to agree to testify in Gray’s trial.

Pillion pointed out the plea deal also required Edison to tell the truth.

On the stand, Edison said he grew up knowing Gray. He said there had been no beef between them prior to the shooting, but that moments before, Edison had seen his girlfriend arguing with Gray on the street. Edison said he saw Gray with a gun in his hand.

Detectives found 21 shell casings in the streets. Prosecutors said Edison fired 19 times; Gray, twice.

One of the bullets went through the Honda’s trunk and struck Taylor in the back. She struggled in the hospital for two weeks before succumbing to her wounds. She was buried in a casket only 4½ feet long. Had she lived, she would have been preparing for the third grade.

Taylor was among the youngest homicide victims in 2018, and her death rocked the city.

Ravenell asked Edison again and again why he didn’t tell police what he knew when they approached him at the crime scene? He played body-camera footage showing Edison denying to officers that he was in the car.

As he talked to police, his girlfriend’s young daughter appeared shocked, wiping her eyes. She was sitting in the backseat with Taylor during the shooting.