Keith Davis Jr. sues Marilyn Mosby, alleges malicious prosecution

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Keith Davis Jr. and his wife Kelly Davis have sued former Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby for malicious prosecution, three years after Mosby’s successor dropped all charges against Davis and freed him.

Davis was tried four times for a 2015 murder near Pimlico Race Course that he maintains he did not commit. He alleges police — who chased him into a mechanic’s garage and shot at him dozens of times, hitting him three times — planted a gun to frame him.

The Davises sued Jan. 12 in Baltimore City Circuit Court, naming as defendants Mosby, former police Commissioner Anthony Batts, the city government, a current officer and a former officer.

BPD declined to comment, and Mosby did not immediately respond Thursday.

Davis Jr. was tried in 2016 for armed robbery, and was found not guilty of all charges except for illegally possessing a handgun.

A 2017 trial ended in a hung jury. A second trial the same year resulted in a conviction that was later overturned. The third trial, in 2018, ended in a hung jury. He was convicted at the fourth trial, in 2020, but that verdict was also overturned on appeal.

Shortly after he took office in January 2023, Mosby’s successor, Ivan Bates, announced his office was dropping charges against Davis and letting him go. In a news release at the time, Bates said his office dismissed the charges because of “the prosecutorial missteps of my predecessor in her pursuit of a conviction at all costs.”

Not long after he was released, the Davises announced their intent to sue.

The Baltimore City Circuit Court in 2022 found Mosby acted with “personal animosity” and a “presumption of vindictiveness” in her handling of Davis’s cases, the complaint states.

The complaint lists 12 causes of action, including fabrication of evidence, excessive force, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false arrest, and malicious and retaliatory prosecution.

The Davises are represented by Latoya Francis-Williams, who did not immediately answer a phone call Thursday afternoon. Kelly Davis declined to comment, referring a request to her lawyer.