After two days of testimony, surveillance footage and legal wrangling, a Baltimore judge on Wednesday cleared 31-year-old Antonio Douglas of every charge tied to a November 2025 shooting on the 2400 block of East Lafayette Avenue. Douglas had been staring down a stack of counts that included attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, and multiple firearm offenses. Prosecutors argued a child was inside the vehicle when shots were fired.
Judge Barry Williams handed down the acquittal on July 15 at the close of the two-day bench trial, according to Baltimore Witness. The state had charged Douglas with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime, reckless endangerment, and several handgun-related offenses. With the judge’s not-guilty findings, the outlet reports, the case effectively hit a hard stop.
Legal Context and What an Acquittal Means
In a bench trial, there is no jury. The judge alone weighs the evidence and decides whether the state has met the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard that governs criminal prosecutions. Under the U.S. Constitution’s double-jeopardy protections, an acquittal generally blocks prosecutors from trying the same person again on the same charges, except in narrow, specific circumstances. For a deeper look at those protections, see Cornell’s Legal Information Institute.
What Prosecutors Said and How the Shooting Unfolded
The charges traced back to a Nov. 7, 2025, dispute on the 2400 block of East Lafayette Avenue. Prosecutors said Douglas confronted a man who was sitting in a car and then fired multiple rounds as the vehicle tried to drive away. Baltimore Witness previously reported that the driver’s 9-year-old son was in the car at the time and that officers recovered four .380-caliber shell casings near the scene.
At trial, the state rolled out surveillance footage from a doorbell camera, crime-scene photographs, the recovered casings, and a recorded police interview. The defense countered that no firearm was ever recovered and that the video quality was too poor to clearly identify the shooter.
Case Closed for Now
With Williams’s not-guilty ruling, the criminal case against Douglas is closed, and he cannot be retried on those counts absent extraordinary legal grounds. That outcome leaves the neighborhood and the victim’s family without the criminal resolution prosecutors had pushed for. Unless either side files additional motions or public statements, the court record will remain the main window into the judge’s reasoning.
