BALTIMORE — A Baltimore City jury on November 18, 2025 found 24-year-old Andrew Curry guilty of first-degree murder in the January 26, 2023, ambush‐style shooting death of 27-year-old Desmond Gardner.
Gardner was killed while on his way to visit his young daughter during his lunch break from work.
The victim, Gardner, had been employed by the Baltimore City Department of Public Works and was walking in the Cherry Hill neighborhood when masked assailants approached and opened fire.
CCTV footage and witness accounts showed he was unarmed and shot in the back as he entered the apartment building where his daughter was waiting.
Investigators determined Curry was one of the shooters, and that a 17-year-old co‐defendant, Parris Harris, had already been convicted and sentenced earlier for his role in the crime.
The co-conspirators coordinated before and after the attack, and forensic evidence linked a handgun recovered in a stop six days later to the murder scene.
Prosecutors presented compelling digital forensic evidence: cell phone location data showing Curry and Harris moving together on the day of the murder, hospital records capturing Curry’s treatment for gunshot wounds shortly after the attack, and social media posts showing Curry wearing the same pants as seen in surveillance of the shooting.
During the five-day trial, the court heard that over 20 shots were fired in the broad-daylight ambush on the 3400 block of Spelman Road, and that Gardner fell with multiple gunshot wounds.
The jury took just over three hours to return a guilty verdict for Curry on all counts.
Curry now awaits sentencing, scheduled for March 30, 2026.
He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder charge, plus additional years for conspiracy and firearms violations.
For Gardner’s family, the conviction offers some measure of closure, though it cannot erase the moment they lost him. As Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown stated, the killing “ensures that those responsible … will be held accountable.”
The community now hopes this verdict sends a message about the cost of violent crime and the value of human life.
