Baltimore crew indicted in connection with crime spree involving killing, shootings and dozens of carjackings

Six people have been indicted in connection with what law enforcement officials described as a yearlong crime spree in Baltimore and Baltimore County involving one killing, seven shootings and about 50 carjackings, attempted carjackings and auto thefts.

The sweeping indictments, filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court, charge the defendants with anywhere from 67 to 269 crimes each. The offenses included participating in a criminal organization, conspiracy, armed carjacking, armed robbery, assault, burglary, a host of firearms offenses and, in the case of one man, murder.

Prosecutors with the Maryland Office of the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Unit said the crew carried out crimes from roughly April 2022 through August 2023.

The investigation was spurred in part by the November 2022 killing of Delaka Augins, who was shot and killed in an attempted carjacking, officials said. The firearm used in that shooting is allegedly linked to other violent incidents.

Of the six people charged, four are adults and two are minors. Lovelle Little, Anecio Rodriguez and Twan Ellis, all 19, and Kevin Mills, 21 — the four adults charged — are being held without bond, online court records show.

The detention status for the minors was not clear. The Baltimore Sun does not name minors accused of crimes.

Little faces the most charges of the adults, with prosecutors accusing him of 269 offenses. Rodriguez is the only adult charged with murder.

Mayor Brandon Scott said at a Tuesday news conference about the case that “every single one of these counts in these indictments reflect a victim and their family.”

“This group is responsible for dozens and dozens of violent crimes, ranging from homicide, attempted murder, carjacking and armed robbery,” Scott said. “It is clear that they actively harmed neighborhoods across the Baltimore region and jeopardized the individual safety of our residents.”

Officials said Tuesday the vast majority of the alleged crimes took place in Baltimore City. Attorney General Anthony Brown, who called the spree a “horrifying string of violence,” noted his office has the power to bring a case in any county where an offense allegedly took place. He said he wouldn’t elaborate on “tactical” decisions by prosecutors.

According to the indictment, the crew developed a system for committing different crimes, the proceeds of which they’d pocket or sell. They struck mostly under the cover of night and wore clothing that concealed their identities.

“Members and associates of the Enterprise frequently point the handguns at the victims, threatening them to relinquish control of their personal property,” prosecutors wrote. “Members of the Enterprise also frequently use bricks to break into and gain access to commercial businesses.”

Crew members regularly sought to steal cell phones and other electronics, ATM machines, cash registers, and credit and bank cards, according to the indictment.

“Members and associates of the Enterprise frequently target victims who have just parked, have just exited their vehicle, and/or are walking to or from their homes and cars,” prosecutors wrote. “Members and associates of the Enterprise will then, while the victim is standing in close proximity or walking away from their vehicle, attack the victim, steal the victim’s property, and flee in the victim’s car and/or in a getaway vehicle (which is often previously stolen vehicle).”

Katie Dorian, the Attorney General’s criminal division chief, added Tuesday that the group is accused of using stolen vehicles to commit additional acts of violence, such as using one stolen vehicle to block or box in a new carjacking target.

Many of those stolen vehicles, she said, were either stored or abandoned in West Baltimore, including in and around the Coppin Heights neighborhood, a so-called hub for the group’s activities.

The indictment lists more than 100 specific incidents as “overt acts” committed by the crew, which prosecutors charged under the state’s gang statute.

Prosecutors described several shootings in the indictments. While Rodriguez is charged with murder, he and the other three adults accused in the crime spree were not charged with attempted murder, the most common offense charged in nonfatal shootings.

On Nov. 3, 2022, the crew approached a rideshare driver and attempted to carjack him, according to the indictment. There were three passengers in the car.

Using a gray Nissan Altima they stole in a carjacking the same day, the crew cut off the rideshare driver in the 2500 block of Brookfield Avenue in the city’s Reservoir Hill neighborhood, the indictment says. As the driver tried to escape, a member, or members, of the crew fired into the car, killing Augins, who was 38 and a passenger in the vehicle.

Rodriguez, who faces a total of 156 offenses, is also the only adult charged with conspiracy to commit murder, which requires communicating about, or working with another person in, a killing. It’s not known whether either of the minors is charged with murder or conspiracy.

Marshall Henslee, an attorney for Rodriguez, confirmed his representation Tuesday but declined to make any additional comment.

Two other adult defendants were assigned attorneys by the Office of the Public Defender, according to a spokeswoman for the agency. Those two did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

The fourth adult has no attorney listed in online court records. It’s not clear what attorneys are representing the minors who are charged.

Police picked up two 9mm casings from the scene of Augins’ killing, according to the indictment, and investigators were able to link several of the shootings through ballistics analysis.

While attempting to steal a man’s car at gunpoint on Dec. 10, 2022, members of the crew fired two guns, the indictment says. One bullet struck the victim in the head.

Firearms examiners determined that one of the two 9mm casings police found at the scene of that shooting, which was near the city’s southwest border with Baltimore County, was fired by the same gun used in the fatal shooting of Augins about a month earlier, according to the indictment.

Crew members regularly threatened violence during carjackings. In one incident on Jan. 14, 2023, the indictment said, they approached a man who was inspecting his work truck, pointed several handguns at him and said “give me everything before I blow your head off.”

In addition to carjackings and shooting, the crew broke into several businesses to steal money and other goods, such as tobacco, prosecutors said. They often used vehicles they carjacked to get there and get away.

They threw bricks to gain entry into a pizzeria, a convenience store, a deli, a lounge, a cigar shop, a restaurant, a smoothie cafe, a chicken joint, a liquor store and an ice cream parlor, according to the indictment.

The indictments were brought in October. Paul Halliday, the attorney general’s organized crime unit chief, said some of the cases had remained under seal until recently. He also said it remained to be seen whether the defendants would face trial together or separately.

Halliday declined to say how many other similar groups the office was investigating, but said the unit was “very busy.”

Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley added that, “unfortunately,” this group isn’t the only one in Baltimore.

“There are plenty of copycats who try to do the same thing,” Worley said.