Jurors view video footage prosecutors say link two men to Schuylkill River Trail slaying

NORRISTOWN — Jurors viewed video surveillance footage that prosecutors allege depicts two men, one from Norristown and the other from Philadelphia, heading toward the Schuylkill River Trail with a third man who later was found dead on the trail, a victim of multiple gunshot wounds.

Montgomery County Detective John Wittenberger testified on Tuesday that video camera footage obtained from numerous businesses and residences in and around Norristown showed Cody Kavon Reed and Marquise Alexander Johnson walking in the area of West Main and Chain streets in Norristown at 8:39 p.m. March 2, 2023, with Daquan Kennard Tucker toward the trail.

Testimony revealed Reed, 24, of the 300 block of West Marshall Street, Norristown, and Johnson, 24, of the 500 block of East Johnson Street, Philadelphia, later were captured by video cameras walking along West Airy Street at 10:06 p.m., without Tucker, but at the same place and time where Tucker’s cellphone was recorded, according to cellphone location data.

At 10:21 p.m., video surveillance depicted Reed and Johnson returning to Reed’s apartment on West Marshall Street, according to testimony.

Wittenberger’s testimony about the video surveillance footage and testimony by county Detective Heather Long about the cellphone data, is critical to the prosecution’s theory that Reed and Johnson had “a plan” to take Tucker to a secluded area of the trail in West Norriton to rob him, during which he was fatally shot.

During the trial, Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Alane McLaughlin and co-prosecutor Caitlin Faith O’Malley argued it was no coincidence that Reed and Johnson were the last people seen with Tucker and that they were in possession of his cellphone after he was allegedly killed.

Reed and Johnson each face charges of first-, second-, and third-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, robbery, persons not to possess a firearm, firearms not to be carried without a license, flight to avoid apprehension and possessing an instrument of crime in connection with the alleged 9 p.m. March 2 slaying of Tucker, 25, of Rogers Road in Lower Providence, during a robbery.

Even though there were no eyewitnesses to the killing and no gun was found and no one knows who fired the fatal shots, Reed and Johnson are charged with homicide under accomplice liability theories, prosecutors explained.

But defense lawyer Brendan Michael Campbell, who represents Reed, has argued that while all three men were hanging out together at some point that night there is no DNA, fingerprint or gun evidence to link Reed to Tucker’s death.

Defense lawyer Dennis P. Caglia, who represents Johnson, argued prosecutors don’t have sufficient evidence that any agreement existed between Johnson and Reed.

Caglia and Campbell argued 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 by a recreational bicyclist.

The trial before Judge William R. Carpenter is expected to last several days.

A conviction of first-degree murder, an intentional killing, or second-degree murder, a killing that occurs during the course of another felony such as robbery, carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. A conviction of third-degree murder, a killing committed with malice, carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison.

Reed and Johnson, who authorities said fled from the area, remained on the lam until April 6, 2023, when they were apprehended by the U.S. Marshals Service in Atlantic City, Wittenberger testified for the jury of eight women and four men.

The 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 Wittenberger and West Norriton Detective Mark Wassmer.

Arriving officers found a man, later determined to be Tucker, “lying in the wooded area down a steep embankment, approximately 100 feet from the trail,” with apparent gunshot wounds. Detectives recovered two .40-caliber fired cartridge casings in close proximity to Tucker’s body, testimony revealed.

“They were fired from the same unknown firearm,” county Detective Daniel Cha testified on Tuesday, referring to his analysis of the casings.

Detectives testified investigators found no identification, no cellphone and no wallet with Tucker, who previously lived in Reading. Detectives used a fingerprint scanner to identify Tucker.

Dr. Khalil Wardak, a forensic pathologist, determined Tucker died of multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death was ruled to be homicide.

“Doctor Wardak identified two gunshot wounds to Tucker’s head and one gunshot wound to his neck,” Wittenberger and Wassmer wrote in the arrest affidavit.

Court papers indicate that 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 residence they shared as planned by 11 p.m. March 2 and that he was missing. The woman, who was dating Tucker at the time, told detectives that she believed a man named “Cody” sent an Uber to their residence for Tucker earlier that evening and Tucker left in the Uber and hadn’t been seen since then, according to testimony.

When the woman stepped into the witness box on Tuesday she was visibly shaken and wept openly for several uncomfortable moments, barely able to tell the jury her name for the record. During questioning by McLaughlin, the woman expressed that she was scared, hesitated numerous times and she seemed to avoid answering questions that had anything to do with identifying Reed.

But McLaughlin played for the jury the audio recording of the woman’s statement to detectives on March 3 during which she stated she believed “Cody” sent an Uber for Tucker on the night he went missing.

Testimony revealed that when witnesses 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.