A Washington County jury recently found a Frederick, Md., man guilty in the St. Patrick's Day 2022 shooting death of Hagerstown resident Jermaine Reed II in Hagerstown's West End.
The weeklong trial included testimony on Thursday, June 27, from a co-defendant in the case who supplied Hagerstown Police with information that Kyeron, or Kye'ron, Zaimere Cottingham, also referred to as "Kruddy," was the second shooter in the car both men were in during the daylight shooting.
Cottingham, 27, was convicted the next day on 18 charges, including first-degree murder, for which he faces up to life in prison.
Washington County Circuit Court Judge Brett R. Wilson ordered a pre-sentence investigation for Cottingham.
Cottingham is the first of the four defendants to go to trial in this murder case.
Two co-defendants, including the other shooter and the man who took the stand to testify against Cottingham, previously entered plea deals. A trial is scheduled later this summer for the alleged fourth man in the car, the driver.
Assistant State's Attorney Brock Shriver told the jury Reed was shot five times but that 32 casings — a mix of two different calibers — were recovered at the scene after the afternoon shooting on Tuesday, March 17, 2022. Shriver said the defendants had gone "hunting" for Reed.
Two people in the backseat of a white Honda Accord shot at Reed, an incident caught on surveillance camera. But Hagerstown Police had difficulties identifying the fourth person in the car, who was the second shooter.
Lead Detective Shawn Weaver testified that it wasn't until accomplice Bradley Nathan Walker told police the second shooter in the car was Cottingham that Weaver had heard of Cottingham.
Defense attorney Elizabeth Connell, who represented Cottingham on behalf of the public defender's office, said it wasn't Cottingham in the car. She told the jury that Cottingham wasn't there and that Walker was setting Cottingham up as a "fall guy."
Connell argued that Walker couldn't be believed because of a deal he received for leniency in exchange for his testimony.
Connell also questioned Weaver about a couple other suspects that the detective said did not pan out.
Cottingham did not testify and the defense did not call any witnesses of its own.
Reed, 27, was sitting in his car on Alexander Street, near Dale Street, in the West End when the Honda pulled up next to Reed and two people leaned out the rear windows and began firing at him and his car. Reed got out of the car and ran north on the sidewalk while the shooters continued firing. Reed collapsed on the sidewalk and later died at Meritus Medical Center east of Hagerstown.
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Walker, 25, also is expected to testify later this summer in the murder case against the remaining defendant, Berquan Howard Carroll, 25, of Hagerstown, according to court documents.
Walker, in jeans and a black T-shirt with his hair much shorter than it was at the time of the shooting, took the stand on the fourth day of the trial.
He and Carroll had been arrested the day after the shooting. But Walker didn't share information about the case with police until May 2023, after he signed a deal that would provide leniency in exchange for his testimony.
Walker, in May 2023, signed a proffer with the prosecutor's office, pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of conspiracy to commit first-degree assault in exchange for his testimony against co-defendants. He signed that deal before identifying the people in the Honda, including telling police that Cottingham was the second shooter, according to questioning and testimony during the trial.
The deal calls for the other charges, including first-degree murder, to be put on the stet, or inactive, docket, with the possibility they can be expunged after a few years.
While Walker hasn't been sentenced yet, the state is recommending he be sentenced to 25 years, with all of that suspended except for time served, and that he be on probation for five years, according to Connell. Walker was released from jail in late May 2023 after being held for over 14 months, according to court documents. He has been on house arrest with GPS monitoring while awaiting sentencing.
Connell questioned Walker about inconsistencies in various statements he provided, from things said to police to testimony during the trial. Most of those questions centered around the events after the shooting, including he and Carroll going to Virginia and also Walker meeting with a woman he'd been involved with in an attempt to get rid of the Honda.
The defense attorney argued that Walker wasn't having memory issues, but couldn't keep his story straight.
Deputy States Attorney Sarah Mollett-Gaumer, lead prosecutor in the case, later noted that Walker was consistent about his testimony when it came to the details surrounding the murder. The prosecutor also said Walker had incentive to tell the truth on the stand because if he lies the plea deal is "null and void."
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Walker testified to smoking weed, a regular activity for him, with Carroll at City Park earlier the day of the shooting. He said he sold marijuana to co-defendant Kevin Nunn that day, but that he had not sold marijuana previously.
Walker testified that he didn't have a gun during the shooting and was wearing a ski mask, the latter of which was something he wore "mainly every day" at the time. He said he didn't know who Reed was until after the shooting.
When Mollett-Gaumer asked Walker what he was thinking at the time, Walker said, "It was a crazy moment."
Asked why he went with armed men and drove around Hagerstown, Walker said, "I was just going with the flow." He said he had "nothing else to do that day" and "let other people control my life."
When Walker was charged, he had an address north of Clear Spring. He testified to not being from Hagerstown and that he went to Frederick High School with Carroll and they were from the Carver neighborhood in downtown Frederick. Walker said he knew of Nunn from the same neighborhood. Walker and Carroll had recently gotten reacquainted, working together at a business in the Williamsport area.
Kevin Dwayne Nunn, 29, of Walkersville, Md., was sentenced to the maximum 40 years in prison in March after pleading guilty last year to second-degree murder. Walker testified during Cottingham's trial that Nunn was the other man in the back seat who fired at Reed.
Motive unclear for shooting of Jermaine Reed II
The motive for the shooting is not clear.
Mollett-Gaumer said Carroll had some sort of beef with Reed.
Nunn and Cottingham, who was described as Carroll's brother, met up with Carroll and Walker. The four used a different vehicle to drive around the city looking for Reed. When they found him, they returned to where their other vehicles were, in a parking lot behind the Arts & Entertainment District Parking Deck in downtown Hagerstown, and got in the Honda.
Then the Honda went back to where Reed was in his car waiting for someone, and the shooting occurred, prosecutors said.
Connell argued that Walker set up Reed's murder because they were both involved with the same woman and Reed had threatened her.
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