Baltimore prosecutors charge murder in 2022 Westport cold case

Baltimore prosecutors have charged a 44-year-old Gwynn Oak man in a Westport cold case they say grew out of a carjacking and ended in retaliatory killing. Kenneth Lawson, 20, was found shot in the back of the head on the southbound MD-295 ramp in Westport on Jan. 22, 2022, a case Ivan Bates said reflected the violent cycle that gripped the city that year.

Prosecutors identified the defendant as Dontaye Montez Carter and charged him with first-degree murder, conspiracy, kidnapping, gun-related offenses and other counts tied to Lawson’s death. Bates said Carter had been carjacked by Lawson and associates the day before the killing, and that Carter’s vehicle, cell phone, shoes and watch were taken in that robbery. Investigators later used a cell phone tracking app to ping the stolen phone to Bakbury Court, near where Lawson lived.

Bates said prosecutors believe Lawson may have been kidnapped or lured into the Westport area before he was killed there. The facts, he said, showed how a street robbery could escalate into a killing that left one family grieving and another waiting years for answers. The case also underscores how quickly disputes tied to cars, phones and other stolen property can turn fatal in neighborhoods already carrying the weight of prior violence.

The Baltimore City Cold Case Unit, a newer division in the State’s Attorney’s Office, took a leading role in pushing the case forward after it remained open for years. Bates said the office was doing triage in 2022 and 2023 while handling more than 300 murders, and that dedicated cold-case investigators gave long-dormant files the “fresh eyes” needed to move. Kurt Bjorklund, the unit’s chief, spoke with Lawson’s family and described the conversation as candid, a sign of how slowly these cases can move and how much patience families are asked to carry.

The unit was publicly introduced in connection with the 2017 murder of D.C. Metro Police Sgt. Tony Mason Jr., and prosecutors have said it will expand gradually as federal funding allows, especially for DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy. That broader shift comes as Baltimore’s homicide numbers have fallen, from 225 in 2023 to 201 in 2024, and city officials said 2025 ended with 133 homicides, the fewest in nearly 50 years. Even as the city’s recent violence has eased, the Lawson case shows how the fallout from 2022 still reaches into the present, especially in places like Westport where unresolved killings and retaliatory violence remain tightly linked.