A Harford County jury began deliberations Thursday afternoon in the trial of Jaylen Prince, the 16-year-old charged with first-degree murder in the September shooting death of 15-year-old Warren Grant inside Joppatowne High School.
Prince was charged as an adult in the shooting. A verdict was expected late Thursday.
During closing arguments Thursday, Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healey and Prince’s defense attorney Staci Pipkin focused on whether the shooting was premeditated and whether Prince had intended to kill Grant — key elements in the first-degree murder charge.
Healey said that Prince told Grant “I will kill you” four times before he shot him, citing a cellphone video of the shooting.
“You don’t threaten to kill someone four times and then it accidentally happens,” Healey said. “That is preposterous. He chose violence, and that is premeditated first-degree murder.”
Prince testified on Wednesday in his own defense, and said he carried a gun into the school to protect himself, and that it “accidentally went off.” He said he and Grant had been arguing in a school bathroom over a misunderstanding about Grant’s girlfriend.
Pipkin, Prince’s defense attorney, argued that Prince fired the gun because he feared he was going to get jumped by Grant’s friends who were in the bathroom. She said Prince made the threats as a way of getting Grant to stop moving closer to him. When Grant didn’t stop, Prince pulled a handgun from his backpack, aiming it at the ground as a last resort, Pipken said.
“Jaylen is not a calculated, cold-blooded murderer,” Pipkin said. “He is a kid who made a horrible decision.”
Healey said the shooting could not have been an accident or an act of self-defense. She also advised the jury not to issue a verdict based on Prince’s age.
“You may not decide this case based on things like age, that is implicit bias,” Healey said. “I know he said, ‘I messed up my life’ but that doesn’t mean he didn’t commit a crime.”
Cellphone footage of the shooting was shown dozens of times throughout the trial by both the prosecution and the defense. The video shows a fight between Prince and Grant stemming from Prince talking to Grant’s girlfriend earlier in the day. Prince can be heard telling Grant, “I will kill you” four times in less than a minute. Prince pulled a handgun out of his backpack, cocked the gun, threatened to shoot Grant and three seconds later Grant was shot once in the chest.
Students who witnessed the shooting testified during the trial, identifying Prince as the aggressor despite Prince’s testimony that the argument didn’t occur until Grant “blew smoke in his face.”
Prince called the shooting an “accident” and said Grant “shook” him, which led to the gun firing unintentionally.
Prince fled the school and was arrested the same day in the stairwell of an apartment complex less than a mile from the school. A resident called police because he heard Prince on the phone outside of his door saying “I shot him … I hurt him … I think I ruined my life,” according to witness testimony.
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