In the early morning hours of January 24, 2020, the life of a promising Baltimore rapper, David Leroy King Jr., known by his stage name Dee Dave, was tragically cut short. The 29-year-old was gunned down in a double shooting that unfolded in the parking lot of the Kings Mills Apartments in Essex, Maryland. King was pronounced dead at the scene, while a second man, Darius Joyner, sustained non-life-threatening injuries. At the time of his death, King was reportedly on his way to the airport for a show in Atlanta, a testament to his burgeoning music career. His family and friends remembered him as a man dedicated to his music, his full-time job as a BGE contractor, and his family.
The investigation into the shooting led Baltimore County police to suspect that King was not the intended target. They believed the incident may have been a case of mistaken identity, with the gunfire actually meant for Joyner. This theory was central to the case built by prosecutors. A suspect, 27-year-old Calvin Krasheen Fogg, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder for the death of King and attempted first-degree murder for the shooting of Joyner. The prosecution's case against Fogg relied heavily on surveillance video of a car they alleged he was driving and cell phone records that placed him at the scene of the crime.
The legal proceedings that followed were complex. The first trial against Calvin Fogg ended in a hung jury, leading to a mistrial. A second trial commenced, where the prosecution again presented its evidence, arguing that Fogg had shot the wrong person before returning to shoot his intended target. The defense, however, highlighted the lack of DNA or fingerprint evidence connecting Fogg to the crime. Fogg maintained his innocence, testifying that he was asleep at his sister's house nearby at the time of the shooting. In a stunning turn of events for the family of David King Jr., the jury in the second trial found Calvin Fogg not guilty on all counts in November 2022.
