25-Year-Old Takes Plea in 2015 Homicide

By Andrew Michaels - August 10, 2021
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

A 25-year-old Baltimore resident accepted a plea offer on Aug. 10 at Baltimore City Circuit Court, nearly six years after allegedly shooting a man to death. 

Tshibangu Kazadi was charged with second-degree murder, firearm use in a violent crime, and having a handgun on his person in connection to the death of Brandon Smith.

On Tuesday, the prosecution told Judge Melissa M. Phinn that Smith was found in an alley with multiple gunshot wounds on Aug. 18, 2015. Medical examiners later determined his cause of death was from gunshot wounds to his chest, abdomen, and arm.

According to the Office of the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City, Kazadi faced up to 50 years in prison after being convicted of Smith’s murder in 2017.

However, an opinion in 2019 states that the case was remanded for a new trial in April 2020 after it was found that the judge “abused his discretion by not asking prospective jurors about certain legal principles governing criminal trials that would be covered in the court’s jury instructions at the end of the trial.”

During Tuesday’s proceeding, the prosecution offered Kazadi a plea of 30 years, suspending all but 12, with three years supervised probation for second-degree murder, and five years without parole for firearm use in a violent crime.

Under the plea, Kazadi must also register as a gun offender. He was represented by defense attorney Stephanie Salter.

In the case of 20-year-old Stephawn Tate, another Baltimore resident, the prosecution and defense told Judge Phinn that they have begun discussing a counteroffer to the original plea.

Tate is charged with first-degree murder, firearm use in a violent crime, firearm possession with a felony conviction, minor in possession of a firearm, and having a handgun on his person.

On Nov. 13, 2020, CBS Baltimore reported, an officer responded to the 2400 block of Pennsylvania Avenue around 12:50 p.m. after hearing gunshots. Upon arrival, the officer found a man lying in the road unresponsive nearby on the 1600 block of West North Avenue. The man, 27, was pronounced dead after being taken to a local hospital.

The Baltimore Sun reported that Tate was arrested the same day on the 100 block of N. Poppleton Street.

Defense attorney Todd Oppenheim said Tate rejected the original plea of life, suspending all but 60 years, with five years supervised probation for first-degree murder as well as a separate plea in an attempted case of a concurrent 20 years for conspiracy to armed robbery.

Under the plea, a third case against Tate, involving drug possession, would be dismissed.

Oppenheim said he and the prosecution are currently negotiating another plea, and the case was scheduled to return to reception court on Sept. 28.

Judge Phinn once again reviewed the case against four men allegedly involved in a homicide in April 2020.

On July 29, Baltimore residents Jabez Johnson, Kevin Cleveland, Damien Mickens, and Antoine Trent each rejected a plea of life, suspending all but 70 years, for two counts of first-degree murder and one count of handgun use in a crime of violence.

In addition to the charges in the plea, Johnson, Cleveland, Mickens, and Trent face two additional counts of handgun use in a crime of violence and one count each of first and second-degree assault, while Johnson, Mickens, and Trent are also charged with possession of a firearm as a minor.

Defense attorneys Larry Rogers, Kenneth Man, Natalie Finegar, and Stephanie Salter represent Johnson, 19; Cleveland, 27; Mickens, 18; and Trent, 20; respectively, in connection to the incident on April 10, 2020.

The defense attorneys reiterated their clients’ decisions to reject the plea offer on Tuesday, and Judge Phinn ordered the case to return to reception court on Oct. 1 to schedule a trial date.