Mark Williams, 61, pleaded guilty on Aug. 13 to attempted first-degree murder and use of a handgun in a crime of violence in Baltimore City Circuit Court after Judge Gale E. Rasin found him competent to stand trial on July 30.
The court will enter a verdict of not criminally responsible (NCR) for the charges, which will appear on Williams’s record. An NCR plea is tantamount to an insanity defense.
Williams was charged for allegedly shooting a man on Oct. 7, 2021 after seeing him sitting on the front porch of his Annapolis Road residence and mistaking him for a drug dealer.
Williams has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and currently resides at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, Maryland’s maximum-security forensic psychiatric facility.
During the plea colloquy, Williams answered clearly, waived his right to a jury trial, and agreed to plead guilty to the charges. The prosecution and defense attorney Sharon Bogins placed the agreement on the record.
Williams’ case has been reviewed in mental health court over the past several years. In June 2024, Judge Rasin found him incompetent to stand trial at his annual review, before the recent competency finding that allowed this plea to proceed.
