ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A jury convicted Marquis Mayo, 37, of Baltimore on Monday of first-degree felony murder, kidnapping, and use of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime, closing out a case that has now taken three trials to resolve and holds all three defendants accountable in the March 2024 killing of David Lewis Winchester Jr.
The Anne Arundel County jury’s verdict comes after a winding legal path for Mayo specifically. A jury first convicted him in February 2025, but a judge later ordered a new trial after Mayo’s defense raised an evidence-sharing violation by prosecutors. A second trial in March 2026 ended in a hung jury and a mistrial. Monday’s verdict, in a third trial before Judge Cathleen Vitale, is the one that stands. Vitale scheduled Mayo’s sentencing for December 30, 2026.
Mayo’s two co-defendants resolved their cases well before his did. Monae Fincher pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2025, and Jamar Fincher — her ex-husband, who had recently been released from prison at the time of the killing — pleaded guilty to first-degree murder; both are scheduled to be sentenced this week.
“Today’s guilty verdict marks the third individual held accountable in the death of David Winchester Jr.,” State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said. “I want to credit the excellent investigative work by Detective Courtney Moore and the Annapolis Police Department, along with the Baltimore Police Department and FBI.” Leitess added: “David Winchester’s family was victimized twice — during the home invasion and the senseless murder of their son, who was kidnapped in Baltimore, stuffed in a trunk, and killed in a wooded area near a school. I am grateful that we were able to bring justice for them today.”
How the case unfolded
On March 28, 2024, Annapolis police responded to a report of a man lying face down in the woods near the track and field at Wiley H. Bates Middle School. They found Winchester, 47, dead of gunshot wounds to the back of the head, his pants removed before the killing. A nearby resident told detectives they’d heard what sounded like two gunshots sometime between 1:30 and 3 a.m.
License plate reader footage led detectives to a blue Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross seen on West Street around 1:45 a.m. Roughly ten minutes later, security cameras at the middle school captured a vehicle turning into the track and field parking lot, followed by two flashes of light consistent with Winchester’s gunshot wounds, before the vehicle fled. Additional footage tracked the car leaving Annapolis on Taylor Avenue just after 2 a.m.
Hours after Winchester’s body was found, Annapolis detectives learned he had been abducted overnight from his mother’s home in Baltimore City. According to Baltimore police, Winchester’s mother woke to a knock at her door and a man’s voice claiming her son was being held hostage outside. As she opened the door, she saw a handgun and tried to shut it, but two men forced their way in. Her daughter, hearing the commotion, looked down the stairwell and saw one man holding a gun to her mother’s head while demanding money, with a second man standing nearby holding a rifle. The daughter fled toward her mother’s room with the rifle-armed man in pursuit; he fired two shots through the door before the men left. The daughter and her young child were not hurt.
The two men fled without taking any money, driving off in the blue car with Winchester inside. Detectives traced the vehicle to Monae Fincher and connected her to her ex-husband, Jamar Fincher. A witness later told police of Mayo’s role in the killing, and all three were charged.
Assistant State’s Attorney Glen Neubauer prosecuted the case on behalf of Anne Arundel County; the investigation was led by Detective Courtney Moore of the Annapolis Police Department.
