A Baltimore City jury acquitted 25-year-old Eshawn Jones of attempted first-degree murder but convicted him of armed robbery, attempted armed carjacking, first-degree assault, conspiracy and related firearm offenses in a 2022 shooting that left a man paralyzed in both arms, Baltimore Witness reported. The outlet reported that sentencing is set for Jan. 8 at 11 a.m. before Baltimore City Circuit Judge Jeannie Hong.
The shooting happened Feb. 10, 2022, on the 100 block of North Smallwood Street. The victim was in the driver’s seat when he was shot; as he tried to get away, his car struck a vacant building, according to Baltimore Witness. The outlet reported that his injuries left him paralyzed in both arms.
What the jury heard
Trial evidence included Ring camera footage of a person in a red sweatshirt shooting the victim, as well as footage from Gomez Grocery showing Jones in what investigators described as a similar style of hoodie, Baltimore Witness reported. The outlet said Jones identified himself as the person in the grocery-store video during a recorded interview with detectives. Jones testified that several red sweatshirts were at the home where he was staying and that he saw someone else put one on shortly before the shooting. Prosecutors argued that parts of his trial testimony conflicted with his recorded interview, according to the outlet.
The available account does not explain why jurors acquitted Jones of attempted murder while convicting him of assault and the other offenses. It also does not provide a current medical update on the victim beyond the reported paralysis.
A similar verdict, years earlier
A separate Baltimore City shooting case had a similar combination of verdicts: in a Berger Avenue shooting on Sept. 3, 2002, a jury acquitted Corey Ricardo Caldwell of attempted first-degree murder involving Darian Nelson but convicted him of first-degree assault and related offenses, according to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. That was a different incident and defendant; the parallel does not establish why the jury reached its verdict in Jones’s case.
Citywide figures use different time frames
The case sits against a changing citywide picture, but the available figures cover different periods and should not be read as a direct comparison. A November 2022 Baltimore Sun report citing police data said the city had recorded 633 nonfatal shootings by that Friday morning, one fewer than at the same point the previous year. Baltimore City later reported that nonfatal shootings declined 24.51% in 2025. The city also cautioned that its updated process for counting historical incidents affects the number of homicide and shooting incidents reported in different calendar years, according to its statement. None of those citywide figures establishes a trend for the North Smallwood Street block or bears on the evidence in Jones’s trial.
