Convicted Murderer Begins Another Trial for Attempted Murder

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A convicted murderer, who is currently sentenced to life in prison, is on trial for an attempted murder that was committed eight days prior on April 6 before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer.

Deandre Sleet, 26, was convicted of the Sept. 27, 2018, murder of Timothy Moriconi over two years ago in March 2020. He is now facing attempted first-degree murder, attempted armed robbery, use of a firearm during a violent crime, conspiracy to armed robbery, and two counts of possession of a firearm with a felony conviction for allegedly shooting another victim eight days prior to the Moriconi murder.

Sleet was sentenced to life in prison, plus 25 years, without the possibility of parole for the first 10 years, according to a press release from the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s office. He may face an additional life sentence if he is found guilty in the attempted murder case.

Video surveillance footage from Sept. 19, 2018, shows a young, Black man walk up to the victim outside of Pratt Liquors and shoot him in the chest. The shooting was connected with a string of armed robberies that were allegedly committed by the defendant.

Surveillance footage from a residential doorbell camera shows a man flee to a silver 2019 Chevrolet Sonic, which was later searched by officers from the Baltimore Police Department on Oct. 3, 2018.

In the vehicle, officers located a black, Hi-Point .38 caliber handgun, which was shown in court during expert witness testimony from two firearms examiners with the Baltimore Police Department.

Defense attorney Alan Cohen did not extensively question either of the firearm examiners and instead chose to focus on questioning the lead detective in the case about the photo array that was given to the victim at the hospital. The victim initially described the shooter as being a Black male, age 20-25, with no facial hair. However, he identified Sleet in the lineup despite Sleet having a prominent beard and longer hair.

Cohen questioned the detective thoroughly about the production of photo lineups and how images are selected to be in a lineup. According to the detective, photos are selected through a database where basic demographic information about the suspect is input and matches are retrieved so that the suspect does not stand out as inherently different from the decoy photographs.

The witness said they do not intentionally pick “similar” people, but select people who fit a basic description. In this case, the search criteria was for Black males aged 20-25. The detective stressed that they “would not pick an Asian female or 300-pound Hispanic man” for the lineup based on that description.

Only three witnesses were called on April 6. The trial is scheduled to resume Thursday, April 7.

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