The young Fairfield man charged with killing 11 people and wounding 29 others in just a span of several months in Birmingham on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to his alleged crimes.

If found guilty of those 11 homicides, Damien Laron McDaniel III is to blame for 7.3% of all of Birmingham’s 2024 murders.

Without the lives lost by his alleged actions, Birmingham would have ended the year without breaking its record for homicides set in 1933.

The 22-year-old went before Judge Shanta Craig Owens wearing shackles and a protective vest. A police dog swept the courtroom before the hearing, and 15 armed officers were stationed throughout the courtroom.

The arraignment, previously postponed because he had to be appointed new lawyers, was held in the courthouse’s lower-level courtroom to accommodate the large number of victims’ families, many of whom were prevented from attending the last hearing because of courtroom capacity.

McDaniel is charged with multiple counts of capital murder in the deaths of four people each in two separate mass shootings. He is also charged with capital murder in two other killings, and murder in yet another homicide.

He was arraigned on all of the homicide cases Wednesday, and waived arraignment on 30 other shooting charges in which 29 people were actually wounded.

McDaniel is represented by veteran attorney John Robbins, who said he has assembled a team of five other lawyers to work with him on McDaniel’s defense.

“We’re putting together a very good team to handle the defense, and we want to make sure this process is fair and that we protect his rights,’’ Robbins said.

“I don’t know anything other than the charges. I don’t know what the evidence is.”

Robbins said McDaniel has told him he’s not guilty.

“When I met with him, he said he’s not guilty,’’ he said. “We didn’t get into any specifics about the case because I don’t know anything other than the charges and there’s a lot of charges.”

Robbins said he’s eager to see the state’s evidence against McDaniel.

“I know there’s a lot of pressure in the community to prosecute this case,’’ he said. “The actual event was horrific, and we feel for the victims and their families. We understand they want someone prosecuted.”

“If you sit down and talk to (McDaniel), he’s a very gentle, kind person,’’ Robbins said.

“The Damien that I first met, and granted I’ve only met him in this case, but that Damien doesn’t fit the mold of someone who would do these types of crimes.”

Here’s a look at McDaniel’s cases:

• The July 13 mass shooting at the private club Trendsetters that killed Angela Weatherspoon, 56, of Center Point, Markeisha Gettings, 42, of Birmingham, Stevie McGhee, 39, of Birmingham, and Lerandus Anderson, 24, of Center Point and wounded 10 others during an adult birthday party. Hatarious Woods, 27, is also charged with capital murder and 10 counts of first-degree assault in that case.
• Charlie Herbert Moore, 61, was shot to death Aug. 13 inside his Birmingham home. Police say the shooter or shooters were actually looking for someone else. Charles Derius Nance, 41, is also charged in Moore’s death. Authorities contend Nance provided the intended victim or victims’ names and address to McDaniel. Nance was also arraigned Wednesday, and is represented by attorney Emory Anthony.
• The Sept. 19 killing of Diontrante Tinae Brown, a 35-year-old mother who police say was an innocent bystander shot to death inside 604 Bar and Lounge on Ninth Street North.
• The Sept. 21 mass shooting outside Hush lounge that killed Carlos McCain, 27, Roderick Lynn Patterson Jr., 26, Anitra Holloman, 21, and Tahj Booker, 27. Those four were killed, and 17 others injured, in the Five Points South shooting. He is the only person so far charged in the Southside mass shooting. He is the only suspect charged so far in the Hush massacre.
• The Sept. 22 robbery shooting death of 32-year-old Jamarcus McIntyre, who died in a hail of gunfire in the 700 block of 81st Place South less than 24 hours after the Five Points South shooting. Others charged in McIntyre’s murder are: Larry Rollins,32; Ny’Quan Lollar, 22; Demarco Beck Jr., 29; and Zachary Holmes, 31. They were arraigned to on Jan. 7. McIntyre’s killing was caught on chilling home surveillance video and showed gunmen killing McIntyre and stealing his backpack. Text messages show McDaniel and two others allegedly waiting for the victim for him for nearly two hours before gunning him down.

McDaniel, police have previously confirmed, is also suspected in other unsolved homicides, police confirmed.

“When we announced his arrest for additional homicides aside from the Hush shooting, we announced that in working with the Jefferson County District’s Office and going over the impact that Damien McDaniel as well as the other suspects had in our community, they were responsible for up to 30 percent of all homicides from July to September,” Officer Truman Fitzgerald previously said.

Investigators have previously said some of the killings in which McDaniel is charged were likely “hits.”

Who paid for the killings and why have not have been revealed.

Who is Damien McDaniel?

What little is publicly known about McDaniel’s past comes from court records, news reports and a short interview he gave in a YouTube documentary about Birmingham violence.

McDaniel, then 17, was arrested at Fairfield High School for an October 2019 case in which two people were shot at in Fairfield.

He pleaded guilty on April 26, 2023, to two counts of attempted murder. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison with two years to serve followed by three years of probation.

The week before Birmingham police announced McDaniel’s arrest in the Hush massacre, Jefferson County Bessemer Cutoff Chief Assistant District Attorney Lane Tolbert filed a motion to revoke McDaniel’s probation in the 2019 attempted murder cases.

McDaniel, prosecutors contended, violated his probation terms by engaging in “injurious and vicious” habits. He was recorded on social media brandishing firearms at least nine times between April 1, 2024, through Oct. 1.

His probation was revoked on Dec. 12.

There has been criticism about the sentence and probation on the Fairfield cases – which put McDaniel back on the streets.

Tolbert said they were fortunate to obtain a conviction by way of McDaniel’s guilty plea — and the 15 year split sentence of time served awaiting trial and probation.

Prosecutors, he said, had “no one” who was willing to come forward with information.

“When you have no witness cooperation, like in most of his cases, because of fear probably, we were lucky to get that,’’ Tolbert said.

“He wasn’t ‘released early,’’’ Tolbert said. “He got what he got because no one was willing to cooperate.”

McDaniel had at least a half-dozen arrests as a juvenile which were either dismissed or ended with him being given probation. Those charges ranged from being a juvenile in possession of a gun to giving false information to police.

In 2021, he was arrested by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office on an attempted murder charge, but he would later tell investigators the grand jury did not indict him.

He was also arrested by Vestavia Hills police on charges of trafficking cocaine, heroin and meth. The disposition of those charges was not available.

McDaniel is the father of two children who were last known to live in Georgia. He described his relationship with his children to investigators as “poor.”

McDaniel’s own father, 43-year-old Damien Laron McDaniel Jr., is in federal prison in Kentucky. He was sentenced to 26 years in 2013 for trafficking cocaine and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

His father’s arrest in that case came after a six-hour standoff with U.S. Marshals in Adamsville. The older McDaniel was described in news reports as a former leader of the Bloods gang in the Fairfield area.

When McDaniel III was 5-years-old, his father was charged with the fatal 2007 shooting death of 23-year-old Cedric Burch in Fairfield two months after McDaniel Jr. and others allegedly poured gasoline on Burch and set him on fire.

At the time of that homicide, McDaniel Jr. was out on bond for shooting Burch’s brother and had already served at least part of a 10 year sentence for possessing cocaine.

The case was nol prossed, and Damien McDaniel Jr. never went to trial for the slaying.

His son was a few months shy of his 12th birthday when McDaniel Jr. received the 26 year sentence. Damien McDaniel Jr. is scheduled to be released in 2037, according to the federal prison system.

The younger McDaniel previously worked at a Walmart, but that job ended with his 2019 cases.

He attended Fairfield High Preparatory School until his junior year, leaving in 2019 when he was arrested. During his time in high school, he had been suspended for fighting.

McDaniel told investigators in 2023 that he was prescribed psychotropic medications for various mental health issues, however he stopped taking them during his time in jail. He also reported having therapy a couple of times a week.

McDaniel, prior to his arrest in the Hush shootings, was interviewed in a YouTube documentary about violence and murder in Alabama called ‘This City Eats People Alive: The Most Dangerous Place in Alabama, America: The Dirty South posted by The Taboo Room With Aaron S.

Ny’Quan Cordae Lollar, 22, another suspect in McIntyre’s death, was also featured in the documentary.

They were asked if they would have any empathy toward the mothers of someone who was murdered.

“I’m (expletive) going to do the same thing to you so why not do it to them?” McDaniel said. “Why show them compassion when they ain’t gonna show your folks compassion?”

“They ain’t sparing (expletive),” Lollar says.

“They ain’t going to spare me,’’ McDaniel said. “If their son ends up dead and they come to court, they ain’t going to spare me in the mother (expletive) courtroom. They’re going to want my ass (inaudible).”