NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — The retrial of two men accused of murder on the Schuylkill River Trail has ended with guilty verdicts on the major charges.
A Montgomery County jury took five hours to find Cody Reed and Marquise Johnson, both 24, guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy, robbery, and flight to avoid capture. Both men were accused in the shooting death of 25-year old Daquan Tucker on the Schuylkill River Trail last March.
Reed and Johnson will face mandatory sentences of life in prison with no parole when they’re sentenced at a later date.
Montgomery County prosecutor Kathleen McLaughlin said she appreciates the work the jury put into reaching the verdict.
“I'm happy that after taking careful look at the evidence in this case, that the jury came to the correct conclusion, which was that both defendants were guilty of first-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Tucker was found dead along the trail by a cyclist around 9 a.m. on March 3, 2023, with three bullet wounds to the head.
“All along, the evidence pointed to the fact that both defendants intended to kill Daquan Tucker the night of March 2, 2023. This wasn't an accident. This wasn't something that just happened.”
While defense attorneys tried to argue there wasn’t enough evidence linking Johnson and Reed to the deadly shooting, prosecutors argued a mountain of circumstantial evidence linked the two with what McLaughlin described as an execution-style murder.
According to testimony, Johnson and Reed lured Tucker onto the trail, leaving their phones behind so they couldn’t be tracked. McLaughlin said that’s when they shot him at point blank range, and then twice more in the head while he was on the ground, and then left town immediately after they got back to Reed’s apartment.
They were caught 35 days later by U.S. Marshals in Atlantic City.
Their first trial ended in a mistrial in February when a jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict.
Johnson and Reed showed little emotion as the jury foreman read the verdict. Reed leaned back in his chair and looked at his fingernails before glaring at jury members as they were individually polled on the verdict.
Both say they plan to appeal.