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By
Kristen Wheeler
- March 3, 2025
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Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa K. Copeland informed 25-year-old homicide defendant Roger Alvarado-Mendoza that he would have to represent himself at his July 17 jury trial if his defense attorney, Antonios Heper, fails to attend the hearing.
Alvarado-Mendoza notified Judge Copeland that he has not seen Heper, who was not present at his client’s Feb. 28 hearing, since Jan. 17.
Alvarado-Mendoza is charged with first-degree murder, having a handgun on his person, firearm use in a felony or violent crime, and carrying a handgun within 100 yards of a school in connection to the March 6, 2023 murder of Patterson High School student Izaiah Carter, 16.
According to charging documents, at approximately 2:12 p.m., the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) responded to a report of a shooting at the Joseph Lee Playfield on the 5900 block of E. Pratt Street, near Patterson High School. Upon arrival, they located Carter prone in the field. He was transported to Bayview Hospital, where he was pronounced dead eight minutes later.
Witnesses testified they heard approximately three or four gunshots and observed four people fleeing northbound and three fleeing eastbound toward the school.
On March 15, 2023, a distant associate of Alvarado-Mendoza informed officers that he likely intended to flee the country. The following day, detectives and a tactical team executed a search warrant on the suspect’s family’s residence and located his mother, who informed officers that her son had packed all his clothes and fled. She testified that she last saw her son at approximately 2 p.m. the day prior, and that he texted her via WhatsApp that night to let her know “that he was okay and eating.”
On March 19, 2023, an informant told officers that Alvarado-Mendez would be smuggled out of the country at 5 a.m. the following day. He was arrested in Texas on March 20, 2023.