A person beside Edward Montre Seay in the car where the Annapolis rapper was gunned down told investigators about the Baltimore man now charged with murder in his death.
The man, it was revealed at court hearing Friday, had been convicted in a killing before.
Seay, 32, better known as rap artist Tre Da Kid, was found shot to death June 7 behind the wheel of car along Forest Drive — not far from the housing complex where he grew up and the community he vowed to support with newfound fame.
Witness accounts, photographic lineups and video surveillance from a fight that broke out a block from the shooting led police to James Esau Davis III, 30, of Baltimore.
The passenger in Seay’s vehicle that Friday night told detectives that the man who pulled up next to them and opened fire went by the name “Esau,” Annapolis police wrote in charging documents.
Esau, the witness told police, went to Annapolis High School, where Seay graduated in 2005.
Anne Arundel County Public Schools have no record of Davis attending Annapolis High, said Bob Mosier, schools spokesman. January 2004 was the last time he attended a public school in the county, when he was still a student at the J. Albert Adams Academy — an alternative education center for middle schoolers.
Davis was arrested and charged Thursday in the killing, police said. He faces one count each of first- and second-degree murder, firearm use in the commission of a felony violent crime and reckless endangerment, according to electronic court records.
He is being held without bond and has no attorney listed in court records.
The witness told police that the shooter pulled his Honda next to Seay’s car as they turned left from Forest Drive onto Cherry Grove Avenue and opened fire, the unidentified witness told detectives. Seay was struck in the head and a bullet grazed the top of the passenger’s hat, police wrote.
Seay’s Subaru veered off the road, crashing into a ditch, police wrote in charging documents. “The vehicle sustained multiple defects that appear to have been caused by gunshots,” police wrote.
The rapper’s passenger pressed a foot onto the brake and shifted the vehicle into park, police wrote.
Not an hour after Seay was shot dead, witnesses later told detectives they got in a physical altercation with Davis in the Woodside Gardens Apartment community nearby, police wrote.
Annapolis police responded to that fight in the 700 block of Newtowne Drive, according to charging documents.
Detectives retrieved surveillance footage of the fight involving Davis, police wrote. Davis’ image matched the description previously given to police of the man known as Esau: a tall black man, medium build and dreadlocks, charging documents detail.
Annapolis police spokeswoman Sgt. Nicole Vaden said the department said she could not disclose if a motive for the crime is known.
The department said in a statement released Thursday night that the investigation is “active and fluid” and encouraged anyone with information to call Annapolis detectives at 410-260-3439. If callers wish to leave an anonymous tip, they can dial 1-866-7LOCKUP.
It’s unclear based on charging documents whether Davis was alone in the vehicle. Witnesses said they saw the flashes of a handgun come from the rear driver’s side window.
Vaden said she could not disclose anymore information about Seay’s killing.
Brian Marsh, Deputy State’s Attorney for Anne Arundel County, asked District Court Judge Sidney A. Butcher to keep Davis on a no-bail status. He’s an extreme risk to public safety, Marsh said.
Davis was convicted in 2006 — at 17 years old — of second-degree murder and using a handgun in a crime of violence in Prince George’s County for an incident that occurred a year before, electronic court records show.
After he pleaded guilty, online records show, a Circuit Court Judge Julia B. Weatherly sentenced Davis to 25 years in prison for the murder — with credit for more than a year served — and a 13-year concurrent sentence for the firearm. He served at least part of his sentence at the Patuxent Youth Program, according to court records.
In 2012, Davis stepped before Weatherly again after asking for his sentence to be reconsidered, online records detail. Weatherly slashed five years from the sentence for second-degree murder, keeping the handgun charge the same. The judge has since retired, according to news reports.
Marsh said Friday he was released from prison in April of 2018, meaning Davis served almost 13 years from Oct. 10, 2005 — the date he was first credited for jail time.
Pretrial services, Marsh said, explained Davis in the slightly more than a year he’d been out already had failed to appear in court for a traffic violation.
Butcher, citing the serious offenses Davis faces and the fact he’d been convicted of a similar crime, ordered he remain with no bail at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center on Jennifer Road in Annapolis.
“Good luck to you,” he said, as the screen on which Davis appeared from jail cut off.
Seay’s death stunned the Annapolis community, who mourned the loss of the talented rapper who won a major national freestyle challenge in 2016.
In the week after his death, members of his family met outside the Bates Heritage Center and asked for help from the community.
Friday morning, one of the organizers of the event released a statement saying police had received numerous tips from the public.
“We applaud the police on making this arrest. The murder of Tre Da Kid has left an indelible mark on the City of Annapolis. We are informed that the police received numerous tips from the community,” said Carl O. Snowden, convener of the Caucus of African-American Leaders.
“Gun violence has visited the City of Annapolis, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and other jurisdictions far too often. It will take the community to draw the line and in Annapolis that line was drawn with the death of Tre Da Kid.”
