A Baltimore City jury found 29-year-old Daquon McCullers guilty on five counts, including three rape-related charges and two counts of assault, following a four-day trial that centered on a recording McCullers made of the attack himself. The woman he assaulted had met him online and gone to his home on the 700 block of Linnard Street, only to recognize him from a prior encounter two years earlier, when she had already told him she did not want a relationship despite his advances.
According to the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office, that recognition happened as soon as she walked into his home in June 2025. The office, which confirmed Assistant State's Attorney Alexandra Aich prosecuted the case, said McCullers strangled the woman, ordered her to wait in a bedroom, escorted her upstairs, and raped her before attempting to assault her again. As reported by WBFF, McCullers recorded his own actions on an electronic device during the assault, and that video showed the woman in visible distress, pleading for him to stop.
Digital evidence showed McCullers stopped recording at 1:33 a.m. on June 25, 2025. Minutes later, the woman escaped the residence and called a friend to drive her to the police station. Prosecutorial records released by the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office show she arrived at the Southwestern District station at 1:44 a.m., just eleven minutes later, to report the rape.
Physical Evidence Corroborated Her Account
Officers at the station found visible marks around the woman's neck, and she was taken for a forensic examination that documented evidence of both strangulation and rape. That kind of evidence collection is handled by Baltimore's Sexual Assault Response Team, an interagency system connecting the Baltimore Police Department, the State's Attorney's Office, and Mercy Medical Center, which serves as the region's primary facility for forensic exams, according to the City of Baltimore. The recovered video was ultimately entered as evidence in the case against McCullers.
State's Attorney Ivan Bates addressed the verdict directly, saying, “The brutality and aggression of this defendant's actions are deeply disturbing, and this conviction ensures he will be held accountable for the unimaginable trauma and harm he inflicted.” McCullers was found guilty of first-degree rape and related offenses following the trial in Baltimore City Circuit Court.
Strangulation Element Opens Door to Life Sentence
Under Section 3-303 of the Maryland Criminal Law Code, first-degree rape covers non-consensual sexual acts accompanied by strangulation or serious physical injury and carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, according to the Law Offices of Maria Mena. Strangulation is an aggravating factor that increases the severity of the charge under Maryland law. McCullers has a disposition hearing scheduled for December 17, when he faces the possibility of that maximum sentence.
The case arrives amid broader shifts in how Baltimore tracks and prosecutes violent crime. Per a report from Police1, the Baltimore Police Department's 2025 year-end data showed the city clearing violent crime categories, including rape and aggravated assault, at rates higher than national benchmarks following its transition to the FBI-mandated NIBRS reporting standard. A mid-year public safety report from the Baltimore Police Department also found that citywide violent crime kept falling through the first half of 2026, with homicides down 23% and non-fatal shootings down 2.5% compared to the prior year.
Hoodline previously reported on a similar Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office prosecution involving a 75-year sentence for rape and robbery, another case built on digital video evidence. McCullers now awaits his disposition hearing in December, when a judge will determine his sentence.
