Checkers Murder Defendant Faces August Trial

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Baltimore City Circuit Court Melissa K. Copeland set an Aug. 25 jury trial date on April 8 for a man accused of robbing, beating, and stomping a victim to death in April 2024.

Deluntae Boyd, 34, is charged with first-degree murder and robbery after allegedly brutally beating and robbing homeless man Robert J. Horstman, 40, on April 17, 2024. According to charging documents, officers located Horstman in critical condition at a Checkers restaurant located in the 5300 block of Moravia Lane.

Video surveillance footage from the restaurant captured Horstman purchasing food and sitting at an outdoor table to eat. Approximately 16 minutes later, Boyd was seen grabbing Horstman’s food. In response, Horstman stood up and confronted Wells, who assumed “a fighting stance.” The two engaged in a verbal altercation before Wells walked away with Horstman’s food.

Horstman then began yelling, prompting Wells to turn around and punch Horstman in the head twice and allegedly stomp on his head eight times. Horstman appeared defenseless during the beating. Wells fled on foot and was arrested a day later in the 4400 block of Bowleys Lane.

Horstman was discharged from Bayview Hospital on June 24, 2024 and placed in a “skilled nursing care facility.” Charging documents note that he “never returned to his baseline of neurological health following the assault.”

The same day he was discharged, he was picked up by emergency services and taken to Franklin Square Hospital with respiratory distress and he was pronounced dead six days later, June 30.

On Oct. 23, 2024, an autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined his cause of death to be a delayed homicide from complications of blunt force injuries.