Darian Kess, 27, was stabbed during a robbery at a home in the 1200 block of Linworth Avenue on the evening of Wednesday, April 27, 2011, and died of his injuries days later. The Baltimore Sun's homicide database records his death on Tuesday, May 3, 2011, the day it was added to the city's homicide rolls. The Baltimore Police Department investigated, and the Sun's database lists the death as a homicide.
According to the Sun's notes, Kess "was stabbed in the neck during a robbery by three
men who followed him inside of his apartment." The Sun later reported that masked men ordered Kess and two female friends to the ground inside the home. He died in a bed at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Before that night, Kess had been one of the most gifted athletes in Maryland. The Sun wrote that by the time he entered high school he "was already a legend in the making," with four junior league state wrestling championships. At Archbishop Curley he broke the school's four-year takedown record in little more than one year, won two state titles in two seasons and, in one year, beat seven wrestlers ranked in the top 10 in the country. "He was the best I've ever seen wrestle," said former teammate Kevin Artis. He also wrestled at Overlea High School and fielded college scholarship offers, but a felony assault conviction derailed those plans, and the Sun reported he struggled to find work after his release. The paper described his life as "a story about beating cancer" and "about finding meaning in fatherhood."
His killing set off a wave of violence. Prosecutors said his uncle, Robert G. Moore, vowed revenge, and the day after the stabbing Moore and relatives hunted down and shot to death the man they considered responsible. Over the following months Moore's crew shot several more people in East Baltimore. In 2012 State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein announced drug and murder conspiracy charges against Moore and more than a dozen others, and Moore was later sentenced to six life terms. Those cases concerned the revenge attacks. None of them charged anyone with killing Darian Kess, and the other men who took part in the robbery have never been publicly identified.
The 1200 block of Linworth Avenue sits in an apartment complex off The Alameda in Northeast Baltimore, according to a later Maryland court opinion, a mostly residential part of the city.
Baltimore recorded roughly 200 to 280 homicides a year between 2007 and 2014, one of the highest rates of any large American city, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Darian Kess could be found in news archives or public records. More than 15 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Three men entered that home, and anyone who heard talk about the robbery off The Alameda in late April 2011, or who knows who was with the man killed the next day, may hold the missing piece. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call Baltimore Police homicide detectives at 410-396-2100, or leave an anonymous tip with Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).
