PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Two men accused of shooting and killing a man along the Schuylkill River Trail last year are on trial for murder in Montgomery County.
Cody Reed and Marquise Johnson, both 23 years old, are facing murder, robbery, and conspiracy charges for the shooting death of 25-year-old Daquan Tucker.
Tucker’s body was found along the Schuylkill River Trail near the border of Norristown and West Norriton around 9 a.m. on March 3, 2023, by a cyclist.
In opening statements, prosecutor Caitlin O’Malley acknowledged the case against Reed and Johnson is based on circumstantial evidence.
She says the two were “thick as thieves, always together” and that cell phone data from March 2 shows them walking together to get lunch.
But later that night, when they were seen on surveillance video walking with Tucker through Norristown toward the Schuylkill River Trail, they left their phones at home.
O’Malley says while Tucker’s body was found along the trail the next morning, his phone location moved back toward Johnson’s apartment in Norristown at the same time Johnson and Reed were seen on surveillance video walking together near the last location that was tracked on Tucker’s phone before it died.
O’Malley says that’s not all coincidence — that’s a plan.
Tucker’s girlfriend said she was tracking his location throughout the night until signal was lost. She talked to him around 9 p.m., and he said he was on the trail smoking in the woods.
Defense attorneys say the commonwealth’s case is heavy on theory and light on evidence and prosecutors cannot definitively say what happened between 9 p.m. when Tucker’s girlfriend last talked to him and 9 a.m. when his body was found.