Defendant Accepts Armed Robbery Plea, but Trial Date Still Stands

By Racquel Bazos - November 20, 2023
Attempted Murder | Court | Daily Stories | Non-Fatal Shooting | Shooting | Suspects |

On Nov. 20, a 27-year-old attempted murder defendant tentatively accepted a plea offer, but Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa M. Phinn did not accept the deal.

De’Lass Reid is charged with attempted first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, armed robbery, robbery, theft between $100 and $1,500, firearm use in a felony violent crime, having a loaded handgun on his person, discharging a firearm within Baltimore City, carrying a handgun within 100 yards of the public and firearm possession with a felony conviction in connection to a May 17, 2022, incident. 

The prosecutor offered Reid 15 years, the first 10 years without the possibility of parole, for armed robbery and a concurrent 15 years, the first five years without the possibility of parole, for firearm use in a felony violent crime. This plea offer would run concurrently to the 25-year sentence Reid is serving for a June 2022 first-degree assault in Anne Arundel County.

Though Reid said he would accept the plea because he wanted to “get this case over with,” the court did not hear his plea today. 

Reid and his attorney Augustine Okeke are scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 3 for a three-day trial before Judge Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill. 

According to documents from the District Court of Maryland, the victim was waiting at a bus stop on the 1700 block of Eastern Avenue when the suspect approached him with a handgun and demanded the victim give him his belongings. When the victim refused, the suspect discharged a single round into the air. The victim gave the suspect his phone and wallet containing $50. 

By test-firing a gun Reid was arrested for possessing in Prince George’s County, ballistics analysts determined that the casing found at the Baltimore scene was likely fired from the same gun. Meanwhile, a law enforcement officer in Anne Arundel County who arrested Reid in a 2017 armed robbery case identified him as the suspect shown on surveillance footage from various businesses near the crime scene.