2022 Ruskin Avenue Murder Defendant Rejects Plea

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On Oct. 2, a 31-year-old suspect appeared before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa M. Phinn to hear the prosecution’s plea offer and schedule a trial date.

Leonard Joyner is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, firearm use in a felony violent crime and having a loaded handgun in his vehicle in connection to the Jan. 24, 2022, death of Donte Lee.

Joyner and his stand-in attorney, Singleton Mathews, rejected the prosecution’s plea offer for life, suspending all but 40 years, with five years of supervised probation for first-degree murder and 10 years, the first five years without the possibility of parole, to run concurrently to the first-degree murder sentence.

Judge Phinn scheduled Joyner’s four-day trial to begin on Feb. 20, 2024, before Judge Barry G. Williams.

According to documents from the District Court of Maryland, Baltimore Police Department officers responded to the 2200 block of Ruskin Avenue on a ShotSpotter alert. When they arrived, they discovered 28-year-old Lee laying on the ground. He was transported to University of Maryland Shock Trauma, where he was pronounced dead.

A witness told officers that Joyner and his codefendant, Daquan Hawks, began shooting at Lee and another man as they exited their vehicle. Lee fired back in self-defense. Joyner drove Hawks to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the back. Police allegedly identified Joyner by surveillance camera footage that showed his car’s license plate number.