The 12-person jury in Charles Robert Smith’s murder trial visited the Annapolis neighborhood Tuesday where a June 2023 parking dispute spiraled into a deadly mass shooting.

With law enforcement officers perched on either end of Paddington Place, jurors and alternates walked up and down the street in relative silence — they were not allowed to ask questions and any observations they made could only be written down.

Arriving in two shuttles after a shortened lunch break, the whole panel was given the opportunity to visualize each stage of the alleged crimes and the spots where the dozen or so witnesses they’ve heard from were watching, hiding, running or hurting.

The shooting, which killed three and injured three others, was the deadliest single act of violence to take place in Annapolis in nearly five years.

Prosecutors hope to prove Smith’s hatred for his Hispanic neighbors boiled over during an argument between his mother, Shirley, with whom he lived, and Mario Mireles, the host of a birthday party three doors away. The defense, meanwhile, contends Smith was resisting “perceived threats” against his family, first from a violent neighbor and then an angry, armed mob.

Mario Mireles, his father Nicolas Mireles and friend Christian Segovia died from their injuries — Maryland’s Interim Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Stephanie Dean detailed each of their gunshot wounds in court Tuesday with photographs — while Rosalina Segovia, Enner Canales-Hernandez and Paul Johnson were transported to and later released from area hospitals.

Rosalina Segovia, who is not related to Christian Segovia, and Canales-Hernandez testified Friday, while Johnson addressed the jury Tuesday morning. All three said they ran toward Smith’s house from the Mireles’ party to try and help Mario Mireles and Christian Segovia, the first two people shot, before Smith began firing a rifle from his front window.

When asked by public defender Felipe Gonzalez about other weapons or aggressions directed at his client, none of the gunshot survivors said they saw the partygoers with a firearm. Prosecutors said in opening statements that one of Mario Mireles’ brothers had shot at the Smiths’ home to try and stop the attack, though the firearm was never recovered.

Gonzalez, who described the rifle fire as “suppressive,” is representing Smith with public defenders Anne Stewart-Hill and Denis O’Connell. Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess is prosecuting the case with Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Steinhardt.

Pacing along a mostly empty street Tuesday, past leafless trees swaying in the wind the jury saw a Paddington Place vastly different from the one described at trial.

On June 11, 2023, the neighborhood was buzzing: families picnicked outside, others played with their dog or rested on their hammock while the Mireles’ impromptu party had drawn a large crowd of friends and family. The block, witnesses testified, was filled with cars.

Shirley Smith thought one of those vehicles, a white Infiniti, was blocking her driveway and, yelling outside, demanded someone move it. Johnson told the jury he had been handed the keys by Rosalina Segovia’s partner to move it, but that he returned to the party because “the car wasn’t blocking nothing.”

When Charles Smith returned home from a day of boating, the argument continued. Some witnesses testified that Mario Mireles began walking away from the Smiths’ home but turned around after Charles Smith yelled a racial comment at him. The violence began soon after.

Among the 42 charges against the defendant, three are felony hate crimes.

On Tuesday, walking both sidewalks along Paddington Place, the members of the jury had an unobstructed view of the Smiths’ home. The home looked vacant, Anne Arundel Circuit Judge J. Michael Wachs noted, and what appeared to be a For Sale sign was posted on the front lawn.

In a note to the judge, a juror wrote the house looked like it had undergone renovations since the shooting 20 months earlier. No one was allowed to go inside; bullet holes that were visible in the home’s front and siding after the shooting had been fixed.

Entering the neighborhood, the jury could see a Mireles memorial on Paddington Place, as well as a painting of Mario Mireles in his mother’s front yard. The painting was presented to the family at City Dock one year after his death.

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