In the winter of 2020, a family tragedy unfolded in a Baltimore home, resulting in the death of 26-year-old Graham Blake. On the night of February 28th, police were called to a residence in the 2500 block of Gibbons Avenue. Inside, they discovered Graham Blake with a gunshot wound to the back of his head. He was rushed to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
The investigation quickly focused on a member of his own family, his younger brother,
Singleton Duppins, who was 19 at the time. Authorities alleged that Duppins shot his brother after a confrontation over a missing handgun that Blake, a security guard, used for his job. Following the sound of gunfire in the basement of the family home, Duppins's parents reportedly tried to prevent him from leaving the scene. He fled but was located by police with the assistance of his mother. Duppins was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
The legal proceedings that followed were fraught with emotion and complexity, leading to two separate trials. In his first trial, Singleton Duppins was acquitted of first-degree murder but was found guilty of being a minor in possession of a firearm, for which he received a sentence of three years, amounting to time served. Unsatisfied with this outcome, prosecutors retried Duppins on the lesser charge of second-degree murder and other offenses.
During the second trial, the family's turmoil was laid bare as the mother of both the victim and the defendant was called to testify. The prosecution presented evidence from the autopsy, which confirmed Blake died from the gunshot wound and also suffered blunt force trauma to his forehead. They argued that Duppins's actions were intentional. However, the defense contended that the evidence was circumstantial and that there was no proof the firearm found on Duppins was the murder weapon. Ultimately, in October 2023, a jury found Singleton Duppins not guilty of second-degree murder and the remaining charges, bringing the legal case to a close.
