Murder trial for pregnant Baltimore woman focuses on day she went missing

BALTIMORE -- It's day one of trial in the murder case of Akia Eggleston.

Witnesses described to a jury of seven men and eight women the toxic relationship that Eggleston had with the father of her unborn child, Michael Robertson.

The pregnant mother hasn't been seen or heard from since May 2017, and now Robertson is on trial for her disappearance.

Opening statements at the trial depicted Eggleston as a woman who was excited about her pregnancy even though she was dealing with complications.

She was preparing to check out a new home with Robertson on the evening that she disappeared.

Friends of Eggleston described their relationship as toxic.

The trial started with the prosecution playing snippets of an interrogation of Robetson where he talked about the night that he and Eggleston "got into it."

She gave him an ultimatum. She said he had to choose between her and his other girlfriend with whom he had two kids.

Robertson chose Hali Pomeroy, the other girlfriend.

Eggleston's father, Shawn Wilkinson, said he wants justice for his daughter.

"Seeing him for the first time after five years is a little unsettling, and I think that everyone that is here on Akia's behalf probably has the same feeling that we all just want to see justice," Wilkinson said.

The prosecution focused on the events of May 3, 2017, which is when they say Eggleston went downtown to withdraw $900 in cash before going with Robertson to check out a new home on Mount Street. They were supposed to acquire the home together before the birth of Eggleston's second child.

After 5:2 p.m. that day, Eggleston was never heard from again.

The defense, led by public defender Jason Rodriguez, noted that Robertson lying to two women that he was simultaneously dating did not put him in a good light. That said, there was no way to confidently know whether he killed Eggleston because her body has never been recovered and no evidence has surfaced.

Rodriguez acknowledged that his client, over the course of three interviews with the police, that Robetson lied to authorities about the fact that he had been with Eggleston on the day she disappeared. He did so because people were blaming him for what may have happened to her.

Most of Wednesday's proceedings centered around a baby shower that was supposed to happen at a community center at Mondawmin Mall four days after Eggleston disappeared.

Some people still showed up to the shower out of concern for Eggleston, which prompted a search for Eggleston in the following days.

Eventually, they found her debit cards. They were in the bushes in front of her house. Most of her clothes were gone.

"Everybody cared about her—everybody except for a few as we will see that as the trial goes on," Eggleston's aunt, Sanobia Wilson, said.

The jury also heard riveting testimony from the godmother of Eggleston's daughter, Emory, who recalled an encounter with Robertson at the Giant grocery store on Reisterstown Road.

Robertson had allegedly noticed Emory and said, "I knew that little girl's mother."

She found his use of past-tense words to be puzzling.

Additional witness testimony along with the three interrogation interviews with Robertson will be heard when the trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday.