Codefendants in East Pratt Street Shooting Case  Receive Two Different Outcomes During Scheduling Hearing

By Shayna Sefret [former] - July 6, 2023
Attempted Murder | Court | Daily Stories | Non-Fatal Shooting | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

Two non-fatal shooting codefendants appeared in Baltimore City Circuit Court on July 5 to set their trial dates, but only one was set.

Miguel Angel Riva Salvador and Jossue Enrigue Portillo Ruiz both appeared before Judge Melissa M. Phinn in reception court. Ruiz, 20 represented by attorney Lynne Peace who stood in for attorney James Sweeting III, rejected his plea offer of 40 years, suspending all but 20 years, with four years of probation. Salvador, 21, represented by Michael Munafo, rejected his plea of 50 years suspending all but 30 years with five years of probation to run concurrently with a plea of 5 years without parole.

After the prosecutor and Munafo agreed on a four day trial for Oct. 25 for Salvador, Judge Phinn asked them to find a date closer to his Hicks date. After more back and forth, both counsels agreed upon Sept. 25 and Judge Phinn set those dates before Judge Gregory Sampson.

However, because Ruiz is represented by a different defense attorney and the state’s office never filed to join the two defendant’s cases, Ruiz had a much harder time finding a date for his trial. Judge Phinn did not like the proposed Nov. 29 date, explaining it was too far in the future. A key detective vacationing from July 1 also complicated the search. 

Because Sweeting was in trial that day, Judge Phinn decided that she would continue Ruiz’s case until July 10 for scheduling purposes. In the interim, she told the prosecutor to speak to Sweeting to find an earlier date.

Salvador and Ruiz are both charged with attempted murder charges, assault charges, and weapons charges in connection to an Oct. 24, 2022, incident.

On the day of the incident, officers responded to the 6300 block of E. Pratt Street in reference to a shooting. When they failed to locate a victim, they went to Bayview Hospital and found a male with a gunshot wound there. The victim’s friends told the officer that the victim was shot by an unknown male after an altercation with a group of hispanic kids. 

One witness to the scene positively identified Salvador as the shooter. After a taped interview with Ruiz, Ruiz admitted to being the one to drive Salvador to flee the scene.