Jury selection got underway Wednesday afternoon in downtown Baltimore for the retrial of Donte Brown, the 44-year-old accused of fatally shooting 22-year-old Tavon Hutton on the 400 block of West Saratoga Street in March 2021. Brown is appearing before Senior Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Charles J. Peters, charged once again with first-degree murder and multiple firearm offenses after his original conviction was thrown out last year.
Brown was initially convicted of first-degree murder and three firearm offenses and sentenced to life imprisonment plus 35 years, according to Baltimore Witness. But in a March 10, 2025 opinion in *Brown v. State*, the Appellate Court of Maryland reversed that conviction, ruling that the trial court committed reversible error by admitting surveillance footage from a West Saratoga Street tobacco store and a nearby Marathon gas station without proper foundation under Maryland Rule 5-901 — because prosecutors never presented witness testimony verifying how those recording systems actually operated, according to the Appellate Court of Maryland. The case was sent back for a new trial.
What the Surveillance Video Allegedly Showed
According to the appellate court's own record, store video of the March 5, 2021 shooting showed Hutton raising his hands before a masked shooter pulled a handgun from a vest pocket and shot him, then fled west on Saratoga Street roughly a minute before police arrived. Investigators connected Brown to the shooting through that footage along with evidence involving a silver Maserati reportedly seen near the crime scene.
Because the shooter wore a mask, the case included circumstantial evidence involving a silver Maserati reportedly seen near the crime scene and footage showing the shooter's distinctive red shoes. At Brown's first trial in January 2023, prosecutors argued that he had “executed” Hutton, citing footage of a masked shooter wearing red shoes.
Video Authentication Rules Now in Focus
The appeal placed video authentication at the center of the case. The appellate court ruled that footage from the tobacco store and nearby Marathon gas station had been admitted without adequate authentication, citing the lack of testimony about how the recording systems operated.
At a June 2025 bail hearing where a judge denied his release, defense attorney Staci Pipkin requested home confinement under full lockdown at Brown's mother's house, revealing that Brown had been the victim of a “vicious attack” while held at the Central Booking & Intake Facility, per Baltimore Witness. Prosecutors opposed release, pointing to Brown's eight prior criminal convictions, two failure-to-appear summonses, and a federal arrest, and noted that camera footage showed the shooting occurring in front of children.
Plea Offer
Brown rejected a prosecution plea offer of life imprisonment with all but 60 years suspended.
The 400 block of West Saratoga Street, where Hutton was killed, has continued to see deadly violence in the years since. The same stretch was the site of a November 2025 shooting that killed 23-year-old Cameron Paige and a September 2023 shooting that killed 35-year-old Dewan Holmes, according to CBS News.
Citywide, Baltimore's violence trend has moved in a different direction. Police department data from late November 2025 showed 120 homicides that year compared to 176 over the same period in 2024, alongside a drop in gunshot injuries from 369 to 278, per CBS News. Even against that broader decline, the retrial over Hutton's killing underscores how a single violent block in downtown Baltimore continues to generate fresh cases years after the fact.
