NORRISTOWN — The fates of two men, one from Norristown and the other from Philadelphia, who are accused of being involved in the fatal shooting of a former Reading man on the Schuylkill River Trail in West Norriton, will be in the hands of a jury on Thursday.
Cody Kavon Reed, 24, of the 300 block of West Marshall Street, Norristown, and Marquise Alexander Johnson, 24, of the 500 block of East Johnson Street, Philadelphia, told Montgomery County Judge William R. Carpenter on Wednesday that after conferring with their lawyers they decided not to testify for the jury that will determine their fates.
Defense lawyers Brendan Michael Campbell, who represents Reed, and John Francis McCaul, who represents Johnson, presented no witnesses for the jury after Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Alane McLaughlin and co-prosecutor Caitlin Faith O’Malley rested the prosecution’s case.
With the evidentiary phase of the homicide trial concluded, the jury of six men and six women will hear closing arguments of prosecutors and defense lawyers on Thursday morning and then begin deliberations.
Reed and Johnson each face charges of first-, second-, and third-degree murder, robbery, weapons offenses and flight to avoid apprehension in connection with the alleged 9 p.m. March 2, 2023, gunshot slaying of Daquan Kennard Tucker, 25, a former Reading resident, who was living along Rogers Road in Lower Providence at the time of his death.
Prosecutors wrapped up their case on Wednesday with testimony from county Detective Heather Long, who painstakingly analyzed data from multiple cellphones, including those belonging to Reed, Johnson and Tucker. Long testified the cellphone data showed the three men walking in the area of West Main and Chain streets in Norristown at 8:39 p.m. March 2, 2023, toward the trail where Tucker was ultimately killed.
Long, who is a former Pottstown detective, testified cellphone location data then tracked Tucker’s phone traveling from the area of the trail in West Norriton and back toward Norristown where Reed resided.
Long said the cellphone evidence was consistent with footage from various surveillance cameras in the Norristown area that depicted Reed and Johnson walking away from the area of the trail on Schuylkill Avenue about 9:38 p.m. and then along West Airy Street at 10:06 p.m., without Tucker, but at the same place and time where cellphone location data placed Tucker’s cellphone.
Testimony revealed detectives combed through more than 50 hours of video surveillance they obtained during the investigation from 26 surveillance cameras scattered throughout West Norriton and Norristown.
During the trial, prosecutors argued it was no coincidence that Reed and Johnson were the last people seen with Tucker and that they were in possession of Tucker’s cellphone after he was allegedly killed.
During cross examination of Long, McCaul suggested the cellphone data analysis was unreliable.
There were no eyewitnesses to the killing and no murder weapon was recovered.
Campbell has argued that none of the video surveillance footage depicted Reed or Johnson with a gun.
Prosecutors argued that while they don’t know which of the two men fired the fatal shots, circumstantial evidence pointed to Reed and Johnson as the killers.
Reed and Johnson are charged with homicide under accomplice liability theories. Prosecutors argued jurors can rely on circumstantial evidence alone to convict the men.
It is the second time that Reed and Johnson are facing a jury in connection with the murder.
In February, after hearing four days of testimony and deliberating eight hours over two days, another jury told Judge Carpenter it was deadlocked. Carpenter declared a mistrial at that time and prosecutors vowed to retry Reed and Johnson.
Campbell has argued that while all three men were hanging out together at some point on March 2 there is no DNA, fingerprint or gun evidence to link Reed to Tucker’s death.
McCaul argued there is no physical forensic evidence to link Johnson or Reed to the crime and he suggested prosecutors do not have evidence that any agreement existed between Johnson and Reed. McCaul joined Campbell in arguing that no one knows what happened to Tucker between 9 p.m. March 2 and 9 a.m. March 3 when his body was discovered along the trail.
Reed and Johnson, prosecutors alleged, fled from the area after the slaying and remained on the lam until April 6, 2023, when they were apprehended in Atlantic City by members of the U.S. Marshals Service and local police at an Airbnb on North Rhode Island Avenue.
Reed was arrested without incident at 5:15 p.m. at the residence but Johnson was not in the residence at that time, authorities said previously. Johnson returned to the residence at 7:30 p.m. and barricaded himself inside the rental unit, according to authorities.
Atlantic City Police Sergeant Charles Miller testified U.S. Marshalls requested the assistance of the Atlantic City Police SWAT unit after Johnson barricaded himself in the residence. Miller testified that over the course of several hours members of the tactical unit used “flash bangs and sirens” and breached windows with gas in an attempt to get Johnson to surrender. The 20 members of the SWAT unit that responded also included snipers, according to testimony.
Authorities previously said the standoff ended about 11:14 p.m. when SWAT members entered the residence and found Johnson hiding inside a washing machine.
The homicide investigation began about 9:03 a.m. March 3, 2023, when a citizen riding his bicycle along the Schuylkill River Trail on the border of Norristown and West Norriton called 911 to report seeing a body in a wooded area between the trail and the Schuylkill River, according to the criminal complaint filed by county Detective John Wittenberger and West Norriton Detective Mark Wassmer.
Arriving officers found Tucker, “lying in the wooded area down a steep embankment, approximately 100 feet from the trail,” with apparent gunshot wounds and detectives recovered two .40-caliber fired cartridge casings in close proximity to Tucker, detectives said.
Detectives testified an analysis of the casings determined they were fired from the same unknown firearm.
Authorities found no identification, no cellphone and no wallet with Tucker and they used a fingerprint scanner to identify Tucker.
An autopsy determined Tucker died of multiple gunshot wounds, two to the head and one to the neck, and the manner of death was ruled to be homicide. Tucker did not exhibit signs of any defensive wounds.
Testimony revealed a female friend of Tucker’s phoned a brother of Tucker in the early morning hours of March 3 out of concern that Tucker never arrived at the Lower Providence residence they shared as planned by 11 p.m. March 2 and that he was missing. The woman, who was dating Tucker, subsequently told detectives she believed a man named “Cody” sent an Uber to their residence for Tucker earlier and Tucker left in the Uber and hadn’t been seen since then, according to testimony.
Witnesses said when they checked Tucker’s location on the “Find My iPhone” feature it indicated his location was on the Schuylkill River Trail near Norristown between 8:57 p.m. and 9 p.m. March 2 in the exact location where his body eventually was found. A check of Tucker’s cellphone location at 10:06 p.m. on March 2 indicated it was in the area of the 1000 block of West Airy Street, authorities said.
Detectives obtained video surveillance footage that showed Tucker arriving at Reed’s residence a little after 7 p.m. March 2. Surveillance footage at 8:39 p.m. showed Reed, Tucker and Johnson, all of whom knew each other, walking toward the Schuylkill River Trail, according to court papers.
“The three then walked to a secluded area of the Schuylkill River Trail in West Norriton Township where Tucker was shot numerous times and killed and his property removed from him,” Wittenberger and Wassmer alleged in the arrest affidavit.
Video surveillance captured Reed and Johnson walking along West Airy Street at 10:06 p.m., the same place and time that witnesses previously told detectives the “Find My iPhone” feature located Tucker’s phone. Investigators alleged Reed and Johnson were in possession of Tucker’s cellphone after he had been shot and killed.
At 10:21 p.m., video surveillance depicted Reed and Johnson returning to Reed’s apartment on West Marshall Street, according to testimony.
