Homicide Defendant Pleads to Lesser Sentence After Appealing Life Conviction

By Andrew Michaels - August 24, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

A 28-year-old Baltimore man pleaded guilty on Aug. 24 to the murder of Kevin Cannady nearly seven years ago after successfully appealing his 2017 conviction and its life sentence.

The homicide case of Delvonta Morten extends back to Sept. 21, 2015, when he shot Cannady in the back of the neck on the 4900 block of Cordelia Avenue, according to a reported opinion from the Court of Appeals. Several 911 calls confirmed that the shooter, later identified as Morten, was wearing a black hoodie and dropped the gun before running away.

The defendant was found guilty of first-degree murder on Jan. 27, 2017, and sentenced to life in prison.

After an appeal remanded the case back to Baltimore City Circuit Court, Morten appeared before Judge John Howard on Wednesday to accept a plea of life, suspending all but 17 and a half years, for first-degree murder and the same sentence, to be served concurrently, for firearm use in a felony violent crime with the first five years without parole.

The prosecutor in the case confirmed this plea agreement with Baltimore Witness.

Defense attorney Amy Stone represented Morten in this case.