Murder Defendant Sentenced for Killing on Woodland Avenue

Thank you for reading Baltimore Witness. Help us continue our mission into 2024.

On Nov. 6, 28-year-old Josh Roberts accepted the assistant state’s attorney’s plea offer and pleaded guilty before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer.

Roberts, represented by Brian Bishop, is charged with first-degree murder, firearm use in a felony violent crime, illegal possession of a regulated firearm and altering physical evidence in connection to an incident that occurred on Nov. 28, 2022.

The prosecution offered a plea of 40 years in prison, suspending all but 25 years, with five years of supervised probation on the count of first-degree murder. This sentence is to run consecutively to 20 years in prison and five years without parole for firearm use in a felony violent crime.

Schiffer found the defendant guilty and sentenced him in accordance with the plea terms.

According to documents from the District Court of Maryland, Roberts is accused of fatally shooting 38-year-old Khalil Tatum on the 3600 block of Woodland Avenue. The defendant believed that the victim was abusive to his mother. Roberts admitted to police investigators that he shot Tatum after a heated argument. He also told police that he threw the gun in the Patapsco River to dispose of it.