Defendant Charged in Gas Station Shooting Rejects Plea Offer

By Ashley Brown [former] - December 9, 2022
Attempted Murder | Court | Daily Stories | Non-Fatal Shooting | Shooting | Suspects |

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn presided over counsels in a Dec. 8 reception court proceeding in which a 48-year-old man who allegedly initiated a gas station shooting rejected a plea offer posed by the prosecution.

Joseph Moulden is charged with 25 offenses, including two counts of attempted first-degree murder, three counts of attempted second-degree murder, four counts of firearm use during a violent crime, and reckless endangerment in connection to the non-fatal shooting of two men on April 30, on the 5100 block of Reisterstown Road.

At Monday’s hearing, the prosecution proposed a plea deal, offering life suspending all but 50 years with five years of probation for attempted first-degree murder and an additional life sentence, suspending all but 25 years with five years of supervised probation for attempted second-degree murder. These sentences were to run concurrent to a sentence of 25 years, the first five without the possibility for parole for a handgun charge.  

Moulden’s defense attorney, Lawrence Rosenberg, rejected this offer, noting that he had only first heard this proposal at the time of the proceeding.

According to Fox 45 News, on the day of the incident, Moulden had been fighting with another person in April and began randomly firing shots, striking two men who were not involved in the dispute. The victims, a 37-year-old man and a 22-year-old man, were reportedly shot in the leg and the arm.

The defendant bears a lengthy criminal record, having been found guilty of second-degree murder in 2002.

Parties are expected to return for trial on April 3, 2023. Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Yolanda Tanner will oversee this matter.