Rutland Avenue Shooting Defendant Pleads Guilty to Illegal Gun Possession

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Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Lynn S. Mays accepted the guilty plea of a 40-year-old man for illegally possessing a firearm during a 2023 shooting Aug. 29.

Jerrod Rowlett was charged with attempted first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, firearm use in a felony violent crime, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first- and second-degree assault, conspiracy to use a firearm in a felony violent crime, firearm possession with a felony conviction, illegal possession of a regulated firearm, illegal possession of ammunition, having a handgun on his person, firing a gun within Baltimore City and having a gun within 100 yards of the public for a shooting on the 1700 block of Rutland Avenue.

Rowlett pleaded guilty to firearm possession with a felony conviction for an agreed-upon sentence of 15 years, suspending all but five years without the possibility of parole. Upon release, he must serve five years of supervised probation and register as a gun offender. He will have credit for the time he’s already served since the incident on June 2, 2023.

Rowlett’s defense attorney, Jerome Bivens, told the court his client had made a new life for himself in Atlanta before the fateful incident and was only in town visiting Baltimore for a few days.

“His life was threatened,” Bivens said, claiming that a group of juveniles had been going around the Broadway East neighborhood robbing people and that Rowlett was defending himself.

Neither the prosecutor’s statement of facts in court nor the case’s charging documents indicate Rowlett was threatened by another individual. Those sources indicated Rowlett was caught on Citiwatch surveillance cameras retrieving a gun from a home’s window and then he and another man allegedly shot at a car driving down the street.

Rowlett was prohibited from having a gun due to prior convictions for attempted second-degree murder and assault in 2011 and 2007 respectively.