Baltimore prosecutors investigate witness leak as defense attorneys deny involvement

Baltimore prosecutors said they are investigating the leak of documents outlining a witness’s cooperation in a high-profile murder-for-hire case, as defense attorneys denied they had provided materials to anyone outside the case.

Earlier this week, documents required under a court order to be kept confidential were displayed in a YouTube video, identifying once-rising local rapper Keith Ambush, also known as YNE Sosa, as a government witness in the case of Keith Brian Russell and Cornell Moore, who are charged with numerous contract killings and shootings.

The video has since been made private, but not before it racked up more than 50,000 views and spawned countless social media reaction posts.

“Listening to jail calls, everyone is talking about it,” Assistant State’s Attorney Jeffrey Maylor said in court Friday.

Prosecutors sought an emergency hearing to question defense attorneys about whether they had violated a court order requiring such materials to be kept confidential.

But Circuit Court Judge Robert Taylor Jr. first asked prosecutors to explain their own security procedures and seemed to chide them for not watermarking documents.

Both defense attorneys, Natalie Finegar and Brandon Taylor, denied producing or sharing printed copies.

“This is very upsetting to me. I issued the protective order for a reason,” Taylor, the judge, said. “This is about people’s lives. This isn’t just about a YouTube video. People get killed over things like this.”

The judge said he was also concerned about pretrial publicity affecting the ability to pick an impartial jury.

Prosecutors initially sought to have the courtroom sealed for Friday’s hearing, but Taylor denied that motion.

Moore and Russell, both 40, are scheduled to go on trial this fall, accused by federal agents of a murder-for-hire plot connected to as many as 19 shootings and homicides between 2020 and 2022. Russell has already been convicted of a related homicide in Baltimore County.

The case was supposed to go to trial in May, but was unexpectedly postponed when Taylor, the defense attorney, said he was stuck in another case outside the state. Taylor, the judge, indicated Friday that the trial would proceed in January 2027.