‘I just got scared’: Baltimore teen accused of killing classmate is found not guilty

Before Donte Crawford was accused of stabbing a classmate in the heart at their West Baltimore high school, he had been bullied for months, he and his relatives told a Baltimore jury.

Crawford, now 18, testified Friday at his trial for first-degree murder that 17-year-old Ananias Jolley and some of his friends had been tormenting him, according to the Baltimore Sun. They attacked him after school, he said, and ridiculed him about his mother, who would show up at Renaissance Academy High School intoxicated.

One of Crawford’s cousins testified that he was there when the teenager was kicked and punched repeatedly, the Sun reported. Another cousin told the jury that the family tried to remove the teenager from Renaissance because he was being threatened.

Relatives said they went with Crawford to Jolley’s house to try to make peace. But Jolley, a senior who dreamed of becoming an architect, wasn’t home.