Convicted Murderer Receives Life Sentence, New Trial Request Denied

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A 22-year-old Baltimore man received a sentence of life plus 15 years for his involvement in a 2023 homicide before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Levi S. Zaslow on July 16. The penalty was handed down despite a last-minute attempt from the defendant’s attorney to secure a new trial in the case.

Derrien Gamble was found guilty by jury of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm with a felony conviction on April 1 for the Feb. 13, 2023 murder of 19-year-old Tyree Bell. Bell was fatally shot in the entryway of the One Stop Grocery convenience store in the 2900 block of E. Preston Street, an event captured on security footage that was later used to identify Gamble as the assailant.

Before Gamble’s sentencing, his defense attorney, James Sweeting III, presented a motion to request a new trial for the homicide. Sweeting claimed the jury’s verdict was factually inconsistent with the acquittal of the charge for firearm use in a felony violent crime. The defense’s motion also called into question the reliability of cellphone data presented during trial and identified a threat of double jeopardy arising from gun charges attached to an unrelated attempted murder case from Feb. 4, 2023.

Judge Zaslow denied Sweeting’s motion for a new trial. Ruling that there was no inconsistency in the verdicts, Judge Zaslow stated that there was a “factual path the jury could walk to find what it did.” He also dismissed Sweeting’s claims of insufficient evidence and double jeopardy.

The prosecution recommended the maximum sentence for both of Gamble’s convictions and requested they be handed to Gamble consecutively. Citing Gamble’s criminal history, “cavalier” attitude towards the execution-style murder, and record of prison infractions, one prosecutor explained the recommendation as an attempt to confine a man who “is a danger to society.”

Addressing the court, the victim’s mother expressed support for the recommendation, explaining that those involved in Bell’s murder “took more than one life. They took mine too.”

Sweeting requested that Judge Zaslow allow the sentences for Gamble’s two convictions to run concurrently. While acknowledging that “the jury has spoken, and [Gamble] is about to suffer,” Sweeting highlighted his client’s commitment to helping his family, as well as his cooperative, respectful attitude throughout proceedings.

Gamble himself addressed the court, expressing his sympathy for Bell’s family while maintaining his innocence and insisting that they had “the wrong guy.”

Judge Zaslow sentenced Gamble to life in prison for first-degree murder and 15 years, suspending all but 10, the first five without the possibility of parole, for possession of a firearm with a felony conviction. Upon release, Gamble will be required to serve five years of supervised probation.

Before the hearing concluded, Judge Zaslow told Gamble he would be more amenable to a future sentence modification if Gamble significantly improved his conduct in prison and refrained from committing infractions.

Gamble will return to Baltimore City Circuit Court on July 28 to stand trial for an unrelated attempted murder case from Feb. 4, 2023.