A man accused of killing a Middle River grandmother and granddaughter in July will remain in a Baltimore jail while awaiting two separate murder trials.
Baltimore County Police last week arrested and charged Bryan Cherry, 36, with first-degree murder in the July deaths of Iona Sellers, 75, and her granddaughter Autumn Harvey, 29. Officers conducting a welfare check found the women dead July 7 inside a Middle River home. Cherry also faces murder charges in connection with the death of another Baltimore woman and attempted murder charges in another city case.
On Tuesday, Cherry waived his right to a bail review, assistant public defender Monika Scherer told Baltimore County District Court Judge Dorothy J. Wilson. Wilson ordered him held without bond. He is due back in court Sept. 20 for a preliminary hearing.
Cherry is suspected of stabbing a man who was giving out medical supplies outside East Baltimore Medical Center in late June. Witnesses and the man, a hospital employee who was stabbed eight times, said nothing prompted Cherry to attack him.
Baltimore Police obtained a warrant for Cherry’s arrest on attempted murder charges July 1, two weeks before 38-year-old Sierra Johnson was found dead in her Oldtown home with signs of blunt force trauma.
Police arrested Cherry in connection with Johnson’s killing after an anonymous caller told investigators that Cherry had walked out of Johnson’s apartment, where a woman was heard screaming, with “possible blood” on his clothing. He has been held in a Baltimore jail on first-degree murder charges in connection with Johnson’s death since his mid-July arrest.
Autumn Harvey’s aunt said the 29-year-old had “an infectious laugh and an even brighter smile” and called Harvey’s grandmother Sellers a caring person who helped those in need. Both women were found with blunt force trauma injuries, and Harvey had “numerous stab wounds.”
County police found a cigarette outside Sellers’ Taos Circle home on a plastic lawn chair just below a partially open window. Forensic testing revealed DNA from the cigarette matched Cherry, charging papers said.
Investigators linked Cherry to the Middle River killings using Sellers’ bank account information and surveillance footage from stores where her missing credit card was used. Police wrote in charging documents that surveillance footage showed a man picking up a prescription for a woman identified as an “associate” of Cherry.
County police learned Cherry had been arrested in Baltimore on July 14 for “an unrelated murder.” At the time of his arrest, he had a pair of the white Adidas shoes that police said were the same ones visible in the video surveillance.