Beloved firefighter murdered at home; girlfriend's married ex charged

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WMAR) -- Maryland's second highest court will decide whether key evidence is admissible in the case of a murdered firefighter.

When police brought in Jennifer McKay, Hickey's girlfriend, to identify the suspect, she told them it was Daniel Greene, a man she had a five-year romantic relationship with and knew from childhood. Police arrested Greene, a former Prince George's firefighter.

In August 2018, a Baltimore City Circuit Court judge ruled the identification is not reliable because police "crossed a line" in their questioning and led McKay to make a positive identification.

The state appealed the verdict. The Court of Special Appeals will now rule whether McKay's positive identification of Greene as the murder suspect should be allowed in court.

MORE: Maryland's 2nd highest court hears appeal in case of murdered firefighter - WMAR

January 15, 2018:

Jon Hickey laid his life on the line as a volunteer firefighter. But off the job, his life was taken.

Crime Watch Daily has new details on the headline-grabbing murder case in Maryland, including the key piece of video evidence that has a surprising suspect behind bars.

Jon Hickey, 31, was a beloved Baltimore firefighter assassinated in his own home.

A search for clues turned up a suspect almost no one saw coming. How did a young man who risked his life to help others become targeted for death? And what did a new romance reveal about a mortal enemy he never knew he had?

At 31 years old, Jon Hickey had a lot to be happy about: a career on the rise and a new girlfriend he was crazy about.

They'd only been dating for a few weeks, but Hickey was already all in. But Jen McDermott says she wasn't so immediately sure. She'd been burned before, by another firefighter. That other firefighter's name is Daniel Greene, and McDermott had just gotten out of a dysfunctional months-long relationship with Greene at the time she met Hickey.

After years of volunteering at various stations around Baltimore County, Jon Hickey was finally being accepted to become a full-time Baltimore City firefighter.

But someone watching from the shadows was about to change all of that.

In November 2017, Jon Hickey went home to his Upper Fells Point apartment, locked the front door, and was never heard from again. When officers arrived at Hickey's apartment on Nov. 30, to do a wellness check, they found the door locked as he'd left it. Hickey was found on his couch, shot dead from a gunshot to the head.

Jon Hickey's loved ones were as baffled as they were heartbroken. Police searched his apartment for clues but found nothing missing, or even out of place. And then, a break: Investigators find a back door to Hickey's apartment was left slightly ajar, and not far from that, a surveillance camera.

Volunteer firefighter Jon Hickey was found shot to death in his Maryland living room on Nov. 30, 2017.

It was no robbery gone wrong -- it was a targeted hit. So who wanted him dead?

After reviewing surveillance video from an outdoor camera nearby from from that night, police announce the arrest of a former firefighter from another town named Daniel Greene.

Daniel Greene is the man Jon Hickey's girlfriend Jen McDermott broke up with just two months prior.

McDermott says Hickey had never even met his accused killer, and that she thought Greene was out of her life for good -- especially since Daniel Greene was a married man.

Daniel Greene was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Authorities claim Greene was "positively identified through the video surveillance" and "the only individual that is observed going into" Hickey's apartment.

So far police have said only that the motive was "domestic-related."

Crime Watch Daily reached out to Greene's attorney, who declined to be interviewed at this time. But he did give us a statement, which reads in part:

"Daniel Greene has maintained his innocence since his arrest... Mr. Greene was advised that he was on a video that connected him to the alleged incident, but police have refused to let him see it. Since his arrest and indictment, the state's attorney's office has not provided his counsel with any evidence that would connect Mr. Greene to the incident in question..."

In addition to that statement, his attorney says that Greene has a rock-solid alibi for that night: He was at home nearly an hour away in bed with his wife.

Exactly what justice for Jon Hickey will look like remains to be seen.