Frederick man convicted in 2022 fatal Hagerstown shooting

Lina Portman3 days ago

1 5 minutes read

Co-defendant testifies at trial as part of plea deal

A Washington County jury recently found a Frederick, Maryland, man guilty in the fatal St. Patrick's Day 2022 shooting of Hagerstown resident Jermaine Reed II in Hagerstown's West End.

The weeklong trial included testimony Thursday, June 27, from a co-defendant in the case who provided Hagerstown police with information that Kyeron, or Kye'ron, Zaimere Cottingham, also known as “Kruddy,” was the second shooter in the car the two men were in during the daylight shooting.

Cottingham, 27, was convicted the next day of 18 counts, including first-degree murder, for which he faces life in prison.

Washington County District Court Judge Brett R. Wilson ordered a pre-sentencing investigation for Cottingham.

Cottingham is the first of four defendants to be tried in the murder case.

Two co-defendants, including the other shooter and the man who testified against Cottingham, have already reached plea deals. A trial is scheduled for later this summer for the fourth man allegedly in the car, the driver.

Assistant District Attorney Brock Shriver told the jury that Reed was shot five times, but that 32 shell casings — a mix of two different calibers — were recovered at the scene after the shooting on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 17, 2022. Shriver said the defendants went “on the hunt” for Reed.

Two people sitting in the back of a white Honda Accord opened fire on Reed, an incident captured on surveillance camera. But Hagerstown police had difficulty identifying the fourth person in the car, who was the second shooter.

Lead Detective Shawn Weaver testified that it wasn't until his accomplice Bradley Nathan Walker told police that the second shooter in the car was Cottingham that Weaver learned about Cottingham.

Defense attorney Elizabeth Connell, who represented Cottingham on behalf of the public defender's office, said Cottingham was not the one in the car. She told the jury that Cottingham was not there and that Walker was trying to make Cottingham the “scapegoat.”

Connell argued that Walker could not be believed because of a leniency deal he received in exchange for his testimony.

Connell also questioned Weaver about a few other suspects that the detective said didn't pan out.

Cottingham did not testify and the defense did not call any witnesses.

Reed, 27, was sitting in his car on Alexander Street near Dale Street in the West End when the Honda pulled up next to Reed and two people leaned out the back windows and began shooting at him and his car. Reed got out of the car and ran north on the sidewalk as the shooters continued to fire. Reed collapsed on the sidewalk and later died at Meritus Medical Center in east Hagerstown.

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Accomplice in murder case is key witness in Hagerstown murder trial

Walker, 25, is also expected to testify later this summer in the murder case against the remaining defendant, Berquan Howard Carroll, 25, of Hagerstown, according to court documents.

Walker, dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, his hair much shorter than at the time of the shooting, testified on the fourth day of the trial.

He and Carroll were arrested the day after the shooting. But Walker didn't share information about the case with police until May 2023, after he signed a deal that would grant him some leniency in exchange for his testimony.

In May 2023, Walker signed a plea deal with the district attorney’s office, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree assault in exchange for testifying against co-defendants. He signed the deal before identifying the people in the Honda, including telling police that Cottingham was the second shooter, according to interviews and testimony heard during the trial.

The agreement provides for the remaining charges, including first-degree murder, to be placed on the STET, or inactive, docket, with the possibility of them being expunged after a few years.

Although Walker has not yet been sentenced, the state is recommending that he be sentenced to 25 years in prison, suspended except for time served, and that he be on probation for five years, according to Connell. Walker was released from prison in late May 2023 after being held for more than 14 months, according to court documents. He is under house arrest with GPS monitoring while awaiting sentencing.

Connell questioned Walker about inconsistencies in his statements, both in things he told police and in testimony during the trial. Most of those questions focused on events after the shooting, including whether he and Carroll traveled to Virginia and Walker's encounter with a woman he had been involved with. in order to get rid of the Honda.

The defense attorney argued that Walker had no memory problems, but that he was having trouble keeping track of his version of events.

Assistant District Attorney Sarah Mollett-Gaumer, the lead prosecutor in the case, later noted that Walker was consistent in his testimony about the details surrounding the killing. The prosecutor also said Walker had an incentive to tell the truth on the stand because if he lied, the plea deal would be “null and void.”

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Walker testified that he smoked marijuana, a regular activity for him, with Carroll at the city park earlier the day of the shooting. He said he sold marijuana to his co-defendant Kevin Nunn that day, but that he had never sold marijuana before.

Walker testified that he did not have a gun at the time of the shooting and that he was wearing a ski mask, the latter of which was something he wore “almost every day” at the time. He said he did not find out who Reed was until after the shooting.

When Mollett-Gaumer asked Walker what he was thinking at that moment, Walker replied, “It was a crazy moment.”

Asked why he went to Hagerstown with armed men, Walker said, “I was just going with the flow.” He added that he had “nothing else to do that day” and that he had “let other people control my life.”

When Walker was charged, he had an address north of Clear Spring. He testified that he was not from Hagerstown and that he had gone to Frederick High School with Carroll and that they were from the Carver neighborhood in downtown Frederick. Walker said he knew Nunn from the same neighborhood. Walker and Carroll had recently reunited, working together at a business in the Williamsport area.

Kevin Dwayne Nunn, 29, of Walkersville, Maryland, was sentenced in March to the maximum 40 years in prison after pleading guilty last year to second-degree murder. Walker testified at Cottingham's trial that Nunn was the other man in the back seat who shot Reed.

Motive for shooting of Jermaine Reed II unclear

The motive for the shooting is unclear.

Mollett-Gaumer said Carroll had some sort of conflict with Reed.

Nunn and Cottingham, who was described as Carroll's brother, joined Carroll and Walker. The four used another vehicle to drive around town looking for Reed. When they found him, they returned to where their other vehicles were, in a parking lot behind the Arts & Entertainment District Parking Deck in downtown Hagerstown, and got into the Honda.

The Honda then returned to where Reed was in his car waiting for someone, and the shooting occurred, prosecutors said.

Connell argued that Walker arranged Reed's murder because they were both involved with the same woman and Reed had threatened her.

Co-defendant testifies at trial as part of plea deal

Accomplice in murder case is key witness in Hagerstown murder trial

Motive for shooting of Jermaine Reed II unclear

Lina Portman

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