Johnnie Smith, a 74-year-old man, died on Thursday, July 5, 2012, in the 2100 block of Cliftwood Avenue in Baltimore. His death came fifteen years after the attack that caused it. An autopsy found that he died of complications from blunt force injuries he suffered in an assault on Tuesday, May 13, 1997, and the Baltimore Police Department added his death to the city's list of homicides on Tuesday, September 25, 2012. The Baltimore Police Department investigated, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists the case as a homicide.
What little is known comes from a short report in the Baltimore Sun. According to that report, medics were called to the 2100 block of Cliftwood Avenue on July 5 "for a report of an unresponsive male." It was Smith's family who connected his death to the past.
"Family members brought to the attention of investigators that Smith had been involved in an assault in 1997 in which he was struck over the head with a brick and suffered brain damage, leaving him bedridden," the Sun reported. "An autopsy determined that Smith's death was a result of complications from that assault, which occurred May 13, 1997 in the 2500 block of E. Preston St." Police asked anyone with information to call homicide detectives.
That brief account leaves most of the story untold. It does not say who struck him, whether the attack was a robbery, a fight or something else, or whether anyone was ever arrested or charged with assault at the time. It does not say what Smith did for a living before 1997 or who cared for him during the fifteen years he spent bedridden. The family members who raised the 1997 attack with investigators clearly remembered it, which suggests they may know more about that day than has ever been printed. Because Johnnie Smith is a very common name, records about other men and women with the same name turn up in searches, and none of them could be tied to him.
The two places in this story are separate addresses. The attack happened in the 2500 block of East Preston Street. Smith was found unresponsive years later in the 2100 block of Cliftwood Avenue.
Cases like this one are among the hardest a homicide unit can take on. By the time the death was ruled a homicide, the attack was fifteen years old. Any witnesses would have been harder to find. Baltimore recorded roughly 200 to 280 homicides a year between 2007 and 2014, one of the highest rates of any large American city, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Johnnie Smith could be found in news archives or public records. More than 14 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. The person who swung the brick on East Preston Street in May 1997 may still be alive, and people who lived or spent time on that block in the spring of 1997, or who knew Smith during the years he was bedridden on Cliftwood Avenue, may remember what happened or what was said about it. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call Baltimore Police homicide detectives at 410-396-2100, or leave an anonymous tip with Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).
