At around 2:20 a.m. on October 13, 2006, Raymond Scott Brown and his wife, Danielle, were awakened by the sound of a car alarm going off outside their home in Bowie, Maryland. Danielle looked out the window and saw a tow truck driving away with Raymond’s Chrysler 300.
The Browns got into Danielle’s car and gave chase, catching up with the tow truck at the edge of their neighborhood. Raymond got out of his car and approached the tow truck. A man next to the truck ran away, and shots were fired from inside the truck’s cab, hitting Brown. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died later that day.
Brown, an acclaimed music producer who went by the name “Scotty Beats,” was 36 years old.
Several hours after the shooting, investigators with the Prince George’s County Police Department found the Chrysler, with its wheels missing, and the abandoned tow truck, which was a so-called “Snatchman” model, favored by law-enforcement and repossession agencies because it allows an operator to quickly grab vehicles without having to get out of the cab. Investigators found a cartridge casing inside the cab. They also recovered a fingerprint from the hood of the Chrysler and said that 19-year-old Nieman Edmonds was the source of that print.
About six months after the shooting, Danielle Brown identified Edmonds from a photo array as the man she saw standing next to the tow truck. Edmonds told investigators that he, 20-year-old Jamaal Alexis, and 20-year-old Bobby Ennels had taken part in the scheme to steal the Chrysler, but it was Alexis who shot and killed Brown.
Officers in Prince George’s County arrested Alexis on March 27, 2008, charging him with second-degree murder, robbery, theft, and illegal use of a weapon. Edmonds agreed to testify against Alexis under a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, where he would plead guilty to theft and conspiracy to commit carjacking in exchange for a minimal prison sentence.
Prior to Alexis’s arrest, Ennels appeared before a grand jury on March 6, 2008. He said that he and Edmonds had run into Alexis, who was driving a black tow truck with a Chrysler on the back. The tow truck’s driver-side window was shattered, and Edmonds asked Alexis what had happened. Ennels testified that Alexis said “the guy reached,” and he responded by shooting through the window. According to Ennels, Alexis said at the time that he didn’t know whether he had hit anybody.
On October 7, 2008, a month before Alexis’s trial was to start, Ennels and Anthony Cash were shot to death in the Summerfield area of Prince George’s County. Frances Lammons was shot in the elbow while running away.
Just after the shooting, an officer stopped a vehicle for speeding. The car was registered to Deaundrey Shropshire, but the driver was 20-year-old Rashadd Alexis, Jamaal’s brother. The officer would later testify that Rashadd seemed nervous and appeared to have blood on his shirt. The police released Rashadd. The next day, officers found a black skull cap near the shooting, and an analysis by a forensic scientist reported that Rashadd Alexis was found to be the major contributor to the genetic material on the cap.
Rashadd Alexis was later charged with two counts of murder and obstruction of justice.
Jamaal Alexis, who had been in the Prince George’s County Jail since his arrest for Brown’s murder, was charged on July 30, 2009, with murder in the death of Ennels and two counts of solicitation to commit murder and other charges.
Alexis went to trial on both crimes in Prince George’s County Circuit Court on October 4, 2010, with Judge C. Philip Nichols Jr. presiding.
Edmonds testified that he had stolen cars with Ennels and Alexis. He said that on October 12, 2006, the three met up with some other men and stole a car in the Oxon Hill area. He said there was a problem removing the wheels on that vehicle, and the other men left. Edmonds said Alexis got in the tow truck, and Edmonds and Ennels followed behind in Ennels’s car. Edmonds testified he fell asleep but was awakened by a car alarm. He said he saw the Chrysler 300 on the back of the truck, and he went under the hood to disable the alarm.
Edmonds testified that a white Nissan Maxima drove up, and he heard a “slight pow” and glass breaking. Edmonds said Alexis did not respond when he asked him whether the man in the Maxima had shot at them.
The next day, Edmonds said, he spoke with Alexis at the house of Brian Barnes. During this conversation, Edmonds said, Alexis said he shot Brown because he saw him get out of the Maxima with something in his hand. Ennels, who was present during this conversation, “freaked out,” Edmonds said, and then Alexis asked him if Ennels might “snitch.” Edmonds said he told Alexis that he didn’t think so.
Edmonds testified that a month later, Alexis returned to his concerns about Ennels, asking Edmonds if Alexis should kill Ennels if he talked to the police. Edmond testified that he again tried to reassure Alexis, but that Alexis said that Edmonds should take Ennels out and get him drunk and then Alexis would take care of things.
Prior to trial, the state had successfully moved to allow Ennels’s grand jury testimony to be presented to the trial jury, arguing the strong evidence of Alexis’s actions regarding Ennels’s death created an exception to the general ban on the use of out-of-court statements.
In his grand jury testimony, Ennels had said that he and Edmonds ran into Alexis driving a tow truck with a black Chrysler on the back. He said that Edmonds helped disconnect the car’s alarm. Ennels said that after the shooting, Alexis told Edmonds that he shot through the window but wasn’t certain if he hit anyone. Ennels said he was at Barnes’s house the next day, and Alexis told him that he had shot Brown through the window of the tow truck.
Lammons testified that on October 6, 2008, she, Ennels, and Cash drove to a location in Summerfield. When they arrived, Ennels made a call and told the person on the other end, “You all can come on down.” Two minutes later, she said, two men approached their car. Just before he was shot, Ennels told the men, “You all don’t have to worry about nothing. It’s okay. It’s cool.” Lammons said she and Cash were both shot as she tried to run away. Lammons also testified about the photo array and that she did not identify or recognize Rashadd Alexis.
The state introduced the skull cap into evidence.
Jessica Charak, a forensic chemist and DNA analyst with the Prince George’s County Police Department’s Serology/DNA Laboratory, testified that the DNA found on the skull cap was consistent with the DNA profile of Rashadd as the major contributor, though two other minor contributors were also detected. Charak testified that “the chances of selecting an unrelated individual was one in 34.4 quadrillion individuals in the African American population.”
In addition, prosecutors also presented evidence regarding the call Ennels placed before his death. The number was from a pre-paid phone, and an officer testified that the phone had been bought in Landover, about a mile from Rashadd Alexis’s apartment. The only outgoing calls on the phone were to Ennels’s phone, and the calls used cell towers near the house of an aunt of the Alexis brothers and near the house of Rashadd’s girlfriend.
Matthew Coppedge testified that he had known Jamaal Alexis since 2002, and that they had on occasion stolen cars to get the “rims,” using a Snatchman. Coppedge said he heard about Brown’s death and called Alexis to ask him “what he did.”
Coppedge said he met Alexis a few hours later, and Alexis said that he and Edmonds had been stealing a car, with Ennels acting as the lookout, when “somebody came out and was about to do something to” Edmonds. According to Coppedge, Alexis told him that he shot a man through the glass of the driver’s side of the tow truck. Coppedge said that Alexis told him he and Edmonds removed the car’s wheels and sold them for $1,000.
Coppedge had contacted Prince George’s officials and agreed to testify against Alexis in exchange for a reduction on a sentence for an unrelated crime he was serving in Virginia.
Barnes testified that he had known Alexis, a neighbor, since high school and they had a history of stealing cars together. Barnes said that in October 2006, he had shown Alexis the location of a Ford Snatchman, and that at about midnight on October 12, 2006, he had asked Alexis to “get” a car for him. Barnes said Alexis told him he was busy.
Barnes said he heard about Brown’s death a day after it happened and spoke with Alexis that afternoon. He said Alexis told him he had to shoot Brown because Brown was going to “kill” Edmonds. Barnes testified that Alexis was known to carry weapons and that a .40-caliber handgun owned by Alexis had disappeared after Brown’s murder.
Three months before the trial, on June 9, 2010, Barnes had been arrested on federal drug charges and, based on prior drug convictions, was facing the possibility of life in prison without parole.
During Barnes’s cross-examination, Alexis’s attorney repeatedly questioned Barnes about whether he would receive any benefit in sentencing based on his testimony against Alexis. A prosecutor told Judge Nichols no cooperation agreement existed.
Barnes also denied there was any cooperation agreement. He said he agreed to testify, “Because I had a change of heart. When I got married, I looked at it like if somebody killed me, my wife would want somebody to step up to the plate.”
Amadu Jalloh, who had been in the Prince George’s County Jail with Alexis, had testified before the grand jury and at the motions hearing to admit Ennels’s grand jury testimony. Jalloh had a lengthy record as a jailhouse informant, and at the motions hearing said that Alexis had confessed to murdering Brown and that he heard another inmate at the jail tell Alexis, “the only way you can go home is to kill the witness.” Later, Jalloh testified, Alexis told him that “[his] brother got rid of the witness,” and that Alexis said two men had been killed and a young woman injured.
But at the trial itself, Jalloh refused to testify, even after Judge Nichols told him he could be held in contempt of court. Judge Nichols then declared Jalloh to be unavailable but allowed the jury to hear his testimony from the motions hearing.
Although unable to cross-examine Jalloh, Alexis’s attorneys introduced a recording of a telephone call that undermined Jalloh’s explanation of why he decided to testify against Alexis. (He had said he told his wife he wanted to do “the right thing.”) The defense also produced jail records showing that Alexis and Jalloh were never housed together.
A Prince George’s police detective testified for the defense about Lammons and the photo array, corroborating her testimony about recognizing Barnes but not Rashadd Alexis.
Shropshire testified that he was best friends with Rashadd Alexis and the two lived together in 2008. Shropshire testified that he saw Rashadd the day after Ennels was murdered, that Rashadd did not appear nervous or upset, and that he did not see bloody clothing or a gun in their apartment. The state introduced recordings of phone calls from the jail between Jamaal Alexis and Shropshire. On one call, made on October 3, 2008, Alexis asked, “What is going on with my M?” Shropshire answered, “You still haven’t told me what you want me to do with that [guy.]”
Alexis testified that he had been framed by Barnes. He said that he was not involved with the theft of Brown’s Chrysler and that the state’s witnesses were lying.
Alexis testified that the bad blood between him and Barnes ran deep; Barnes believed that Alexis had “shot up” his house, and, in retaliation, Barnes had broken Alexis’s jaw. Alexis also said that he believed Barnes had stolen Alexis’s truck and warned Alexis not to report the theft or he would “catch a serious charge.”
On October 29, 2010, the jury convicted Alexis of second-degree murder, armed robbery, illegal use of a handgun, conspiracy to commit theft, and two counts of theft, all related to Brown’s murder. The jury also convicted Alexis of two counts of solicitation to commit murder, with one count tied to preventing Ennels from testifying at trial and the other as retaliation against Ennels for testifying before the grand jury.
Judge Nichols sentenced Alexis to 140 years in prison.
Rashadd Alexis was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in 2012. He later received a new trial and was reconvicted in 2016.
Jamaal appealed, arguing that Judge Nichols had erred in allowing the jury to hear the non-trial testimony of Ennels and Jalloh and in barring his use of an attorney who had previously represented Jalloh.
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals affirmed the convictions on February 27, 20213. It said Judge Nichols had acted properly in granting the state’s motion to strike the attorney because the conflict of interest could not be resolved. The court also said that the state presented substantial circumstantial evidence of Jamaal’s involvement in Ennels’s death, which supported the judge’s decision to allow Ennels’s grand jury testimony.
Regarding Jalloh, the appellate court ruled that Alexis’s trial attorneys had not properly preserved the matter for review. Still, the court said that Judge Nichols had ruled correctly, noting that the attorneys had conducted an extensive cross-examination of Jalloh at the motions hearing, which was part of the testimony heard by the jury.
On July 21, 2017, Alexis filed a petition for a writ of actual innocence in Prince George’s County Circuit Court. The petition said the state had failed to disclose benefits that Barnes had received in exchange for his testimony against Alexis.
According to the petition, although Barnes had been arrested in June 2010, his indictment had been delayed until after he testified.
After Alexis’s trial, a federal prosecutor called the state prosecutor to see how Barnes performed as a witness. Barnes was facing a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison on his federal charges, but an assistant U.S. attorney argued for a reduction. The federal prosecutor wrote, “As I understand from the State’s Attorney’s office, [Barnes] did very well. In fact, they described him as a critical—a ‘but for’ witness in the conviction of this other violent individual in Upper Marlboro.” Barnes was sentenced on July 15, 2011, to nine years in prison.
In its response, the state said it had not committed a disclosure violation because no explicit deal for Barnes existed. In addition, the state said that Alexis’s post-conviction attorneys could have reasonably discovered Barnes’s benefits years earlier and included it in a more timely motion for a new trial.
On June 21, 2022, Judge Krystal Alves granted Alexis’s writ of actual innocence and ordered a new trial.
In her ruling, Judge Alves said that it didn’t matter that Barnes and the state and federal prosecutors lacked an explicit cooperation agreement.
“Because the State knew or reasonably should have known that Barnes may receive a reduction in his federal sentence, based upon the inquiry from the federal prosecutor, the State had a duty … to determine those benefits and disclose them to petitioner and his counsel,” she wrote.
Judge Alves said that Barnes was the key witness at the trial, because other witnesses were either connected to the crime scene by physical evidence or testifying under cooperation agreements. Barnes had testified that he came forward because he had a “change of heart,” but the impeachment evidence undermined his credibility, Judge Alves said.
“This Court notes that there was no physical evidence linking petitioner to the murder of Raymond Brown or Bobby Ennels,” she wrote. “A jury, aware of the significant sentencing benefits given to Barnes, could reasonably give less or no weight to his testimony. For these reasons, Petitioner suffered prejudice because its non-disclosure undermined Petitioner's right to a fair trial.”
Alexis’s retrial began in early May 2026 in Prince George’s County Circuit Court. A jury acquitted him on all counts on May 14, 2026, and he was released from custody.
– Ken OtterbourgPosting Date: 06-02-2026
