Just after 1 a.m. on September 5, 2016, Daniel Smalls, 34, a man from Baltimore, was with his wife, Keara Peterson, and her sister, Cierra Carrington, near East Monument Street around the North Glover Street area when gunfire erupted. In the sudden chaos, Smalls was hit in the chest, and even as police and medics rushed in, he would not survive his wound. The two women were also shot but lived, and one of the survivors was pregnant, later delivering her baby safely.
Investigators quickly framed the shooting as more than random street violence. Police announced that Marion Roberta Daughton, 31, was the suspected shooter and said they treated her as “Public Enemy No. 1” while they worked to find her. She was arrested after a warrant was obtained, and authorities said she faced a long list of charges that included first-degree murder, along with additional counts tied to the two wounded women.
Within days, police said the case widened. A second suspect, Toniasha Manique Johnson, 23, was arrested and accused of handing the gun to Daughton before the shots were fired. Authorities charged Johnson with serious offenses that included first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and conspiracy to commit murder, describing her alleged role as pivotal to what happened in those early-morning moments on Monument Street.
As the case moved through court, the story grew more complicated. In later proceedings tied to the same incident, Daughton was convicted of multiple crimes related to the shootings of the two surviving victims, including attempted second-degree murder and assault, along with handgun-related offenses—but she was acquitted of all charges connected to Smalls’ death. The record also reflects the strain that time and fear can place on witnesses: Peterson and another witness, Davon Fields, later claimed they could not remember the shooting at trial, and the court found they were feigning memory loss, allowing earlier recorded statements identifying Daughton as the shooter to be used instead. The appellate court ultimately affirmed the judgments described in that opinion.
