Defendant Pleads Guilty After Awaiting Trial for Over a Year

By Carly Schiller [former] - July 15, 2021
Court | Daily Stories | Non-Fatal Shooting |

An attempted murder defendant pleaded guilty on July 14 before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge John A. Howard. Despite being scheduled as the first criminal jury trial since the onset of the pandemic, no jury was present on Wednesday, as Rice accepted a plea for one of the charges.

Baltimore resident Keon Rice, 29, had been awaiting trial for more than a year, facing 10 charges in connection to a shooting in March 2020.

According to the prosecution, Rice got into an argument with a woman around 3:30 a.m. on March 28, 2020. The woman then got into another man’s car and left with him.

Rice allegedly blocked the car with his body to prevent the two from leaving and shot at the vehicle four times. After driving away, the man who was driving the vehicle suffered from a gunshot wound to his leg. He went to a local hospital for treatment.

Baltimore Police were called to the hospital and began investigating. 

Rice was charged with attempted first and second-degree murder, first and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, as well as five weapons charges. 

On May 25, Rice’s case was heard in postponement court, where he was offered a plea of life, suspending all but 25 years, for attempted first-degree murder, and five years without parole for firearm use in a violent crime to run concurrently.

The deal was rejected by his defense attorney, Hunter Pruette.

The case returned to court on July 9 for a motion to suppress 13 hours of body camera footage. During the hearing, Pruette argued that because the evidence was filed under the wrong case number, he did not have enough time to review it. He also said the state should be held accountable for its “massively untimely process,” as Rice had been in jail for more than a year.

During Wednesday’s proceeding, Rice accepted a different plea offer of 25 years, suspending all but seven and a half years, with three years of probation, for attempted second-degree murder.

He must also continue following an order to stay away from the victim and the woman Rice argued with.

Pruette said, at the time of the incident in March 2020, Rice “may have been on parole” for a previous offense and that his additional charges would have violated the conditions of his parole. 

Pruette told Rice that any additional time he would need to serve for violating his parole would run concurrently with the time served for this case.

The case is scheduled to return before Judge Howard for a sentencing on Nov. 8 at 9 a.m.

The first trial scheduled since the pandemic shutdown still had issues as the courts begin to go back to normal operations. The court docket, which holds the cases, their respective courtrooms and times for the day, listed the wrong courtroom number for the trial.