New trial date scheduled for William Porter

William Porter, one of six Baltimore police officers charged in connection with the death of Freddie Gray, will face a June 13, 2016, retrial, said Allison Akers, spokeswoman for the Maryland Court System.

The trial date will be formalized and approved at an Administrative Court hearing on Tuesday morning at Courthouse East. “The sole objective of the hearing is to have the new trial date read into the record”, the judiciary wrote in a statement. Porter’s trial will come after five other officers charged in the case are scheduled to go to court in the next three months.

William Porter’s first trial ended in a hung jury last week.

Porter, Goodson and four other officers were charged in the death of Gray.

Prosecutors argued Porter ignored Gray’s pleas for medical help and that Porter, who was driving the police transport van, went against department policy by not securing Gray properly in the back of the vehicle.

Porter was reached by phone by The Baltimore Sun last week, after the first trial was declared a mistrial. Porter faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, assault, endangerment and misconduct. He faces the most serious charge: second-degree “depraved-heart” murder.

Goodson’s trial is slated to begin January 6.

The wagon “became his casket on wheels”, prosecutor Janice Bledsoe said during her closing argument.

The first jury was comprised of four black women, three white women, three black men and two white men.