Ramel Keith Baker, a 30-year-old Black / African American man, was fatally shot on the night of August 17, 2014, at the Welcome Inn in the 8700 block of Loch Bend Drive in Parkville, Maryland. Just before 11 p.m., Baltimore County police and fire personnel responded to reports of gunfire and found Baker lying wounded in an alley near the motel. He had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, later described as wounds to his back, arm and thigh.
Emergency personnel transported him to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead.
What initially appeared to police to be the culmination of an ongoing dispute developed into a case involving four men: Jermell Lamont Foster, brothers Pompey and Nathaniel Lawrence, and Umar Hydeem Amin Foust. Evidence later presented in court showed that tensions between Baker and the Lawrence brothers had been building for roughly a year. According to testimony, Baker and the brothers were involved in drug dealing around the Welcome Inn, and there had been competition over customers. The situation reportedly worsened about a month before the killing after Baker sold Pompey Lawrence drugs that Pompey considered bad.
The conflict intensified on the day Baker was killed. Foust later testified that he encountered Baker and another man, Eddie Morene, fighting Nathaniel Lawrence near the Welcome Inn and intervened to break up the altercation. Nathaniel then left the area with Foust, drove to an apartment several miles away and returned carrying a black bag. When they arrived back across from the Welcome Inn, Pompey Lawrence and Jermell Foster were already there. According to Foust, he eventually looked inside the bag and discovered a gun. He did not want to carry it and gave the bag to Foster. The group then made its way back toward the motel.
Foust's testimony became the central account of what happened immediately before the shooting. He said Baker encountered him near the leasing office, appeared intoxicated or dazed, reached toward his waist and chased him. Foust ran toward the area where Foster and the Lawrence brothers were standing. Baker then encountered Pompey Lawrence and, according to Foust, produced a knife and attempted to slash or stab him. Pompey avoided the attack. Foster then drew the gun. Foust testified that Baker tried to flee when Foster began firing. After Baker fell, there was a pause, and Foust said Pompey urged Foster to continue. Foster then fired additional shots. The four men fled the scene and later met at an apartment near Perring Parkway.
Baltimore County police arrested all four men in early September 2014. Foust, Foster, Nathaniel Lawrence and Pompey Lawrence were all initially charged with first-degree murder. Foster also faced charges involving use of a handgun during a felony and a separate handgun violation. They were held without bail as investigators built the case. Prosecutors ultimately alleged that the earlier dispute and fight had been followed by Nathaniel retrieving the gun, the group reassembling at the Welcome Inn, and Foster carrying out the fatal shooting with the participation of the others.
Foust eventually broke from the other defendants and entered a voluntary guilty plea to first-degree murder. As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to testify for the prosecution against Foster and the Lawrence brothers. The agreement provided for a maximum sentence of life imprisonment with all but 20 years suspended. His testimony supplied prosecutors with the only eyewitness account presented at trial describing the shooting itself and the events leading directly to it. Defense attorneys later challenged his credibility, particularly because some of his most damaging statements concerning Pompey Lawrence were made while he was seeking a plea agreement.
Foster, Pompey Lawrence and Nathaniel Lawrence were tried together. In September 2015, a Baltimore County jury convicted all three of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Prosecutors maintained that Pompey directed Foster to shoot Baker and that Nathaniel assisted in the events that led to the killing. The court sentenced each of the three to life imprisonment with all but 50 years suspended for first-degree murder, a concurrent life sentence with all but 50 years suspended for conspiracy, and a concurrent 20-year sentence for the firearm offense.
The convictions were later challenged on appeal. Foster argued that the jury should have been instructed on defense of others because of evidence that Baker had attacked Pompey with a knife. Pompey challenged the sufficiency of the evidence and argued that the jury should have received a voluntary-manslaughter instruction based on provocation. Nathaniel argued that there was insufficient evidence that he intended for Baker to be killed, pointing out that no testimony established that he personally ordered Foster to fire. The Maryland Court of Special Appeals rejected those arguments. It concluded that the evidence permitted the jury to find that Nathaniel retrieved the gun after the earlier fight, that the group returned and assembled together at the Welcome Inn, and that they intended to find and kill Baker. In May 2017, the appellate court affirmed the judgments against Foster, Pompey Lawrence and Nathaniel Lawrence, leaving their murder convictions and sentences in place.
