Trial in 2018 killing of trial witness and former Morgan State basketball player began this week

More than three years after the fatal shooting of a Morgan State basketball start set to testify as a witness in a murder trial, Baltimore County detectives caught a lucky break in the cold case.

Darell Mason, a man arrested in Georgia and extradited to Baltimore City, told police in May 2022 that his friend Kenneth Davis had killed Tracey Carrington as she was leaving an Overlea bar on Sept. 6, 2018 and had buried the murder weapon in Mason’s backyard that night.

Police arranged for the two men to be placed together inside a wired cell in the Baltimore County courthouse so Mason could attempt to elicit a confession. Mason’s testimony and the recorded conversation in the holding cell are key pieces of evidence in the state’s murder case against Davis, which began this week before a Baltimore County Circuit Court jury.

Davis, 33, is charged with first-degree murder, witness tampering and firearms offenses in the death of Carrington, the former captain of the Morgan State basketball team who was working as a coach and substitute teacher when she died.

Carrington was shot 12 times, a doctor who performed her autopsy testified Wednesday, as prosecutors displayed images of bullet holes in her neck, face, side, back and hands for the jury.

Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Fuller called her death a “targeted assassination” in an opening statement Tuesday.

“The defendant shot and killed Tracey because she was an eyewitness to a large-scale marijuana deal gone terribly wrong, an attempted marijuana deal that ended with two men being shot and killed,” Fuller said Tuesday.

Carrington was set to testify in the trial of Norwood and Nyghee Johnson, brothers who ultimately were convicted of second-degree murder in the April 2018 shooting of the two men inside an apartment complex across from the Towson Town Center.

Fuller said county police had exhausted their leads in Carrington’s slaying by spring 2022.

“The case went cold,” Fuller said.

Then Mason came forward, telling detectives that Davis had called him the night of the murder, then showed up at his home to bury two guns in the backyard and burn his clothes on a grill.

“This case comes down to one person: Darrell Mason,” Davis’ attorney Janice Bledsoe said in her opening statement. “Darrell Mason is the ultimate con man.”

Bledsoe said Mason interpreted the conversation recorded in the holding cell so he could receive a favorable deal in a pending Baltimore County case. She said the home where Mason lived never had a grill, that he had told police Davis had called him from a number that doesn’t appear in phone records and that he had even lied to police about not having a middle name.

Jurors heard testimony Tuesday and Wednesday from witnesses to the shooting, as well as detectives, other police and the medical examiner who performed Carrington’s autopsy.

When Mason took the stand Wednesday, Assistant State’s Attorney Lauren Stone asked him how he knew the defendant.

“We’re like family,” said Mason, adding the one-time seafood business partners had known each other since they were about 13. Mason knew Davis as “Reds,” while Davis called him “Relly.”

Mason testified that Davis had called him late on the night of Carrington’s murder, telling him to come outside. Davis placed a pair of New Balance sneakers and a grey sweatsuit on the grill in the backyard and doused the clothes with lighter fluid. When the flames got too large, Mason closed the grill, he said. Then he gave Davis a shovel to bury two guns he was carrying in a bookbag. Mason said that another associate later came and dug them back up again.

About a week later, Mason said he went to Davis’ apartment to buy marijuana. A group of men were talking about “the incident” — the death of “that Morgan State [University] chick.”

“I got that bitch,” Mason recalled Davis saying as the others laughed.

“I’m not a cold-hearted person so when they started talking about that, I got chills and I left,” Mason said.

Later, he said he came forward because he overheard Davis saying he didn’t care if he was homeless and said Davis had threatened his life.

In court Wednesday, prosecutors played the one hour and 20 minute conversation recorded in the holding cell, stopping periodically to ask Mason to clarify which person was speaking.

Muffled audio and slang made some phrases difficult to decipher, but Mason said after he referenced Carrington’s murder, Davis responded “I did that shit myself.” The two talked about the Johnson brothers’ case, but also their frayed friendship: They spoke about honesty, trust and their families. They also discussed what had become of the two apparently missing guns.

Mason referenced what he said was the night Davis came to hide evidence after Carrington’s murder: “when you came to me that night.” Davis’ response is hard to understand, but the phrase “immediate death penalty” is audible, prosecutors said.

The state’s case is expected to be completed Thursday. Davis will decide then whether or not to testify in his own defense.