Defendant Pleads Guilty to First-Degree Murder

By Alyssia Davis [former] - May 16, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

A 33-year-old Baltimore man took a plea offer May 16 of 35 years before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Daniels. 

Raymond Roman is charged with first-degree murder, use of a firearm during a violent crime, having a handgun on his person, and possession of a firearm with a felony conviction in connection to an incident on April 27, 2021. 

During court proceedings on Monday, Judge Daniels listened as the prosecutor presented a plea of life suspending all but 40 years with five years on supervised probation for first-degree murder and 20 years with the first five years without parole for use of a firearm during a violent crime, the charges are set to run concurrently. 

Roman’s defense attorney John Cox argued that his client has no prior handgun conviction. He continued by requesting that his client should be given life suspending all but 35 years with five years probation instead of the 40 years that the prosecutor offered seeing as he did not initiate the incident. 

Under the plea, the defendant must also register as a gun offender. 

“My son was murdered callously…he has a special needs and non-verbal son that he left fatherless,” the victims mother said as she read her victim impact statement to the judge. “He also has a three-year-old granddaughter he will never get to know. What was your motive? What was your purpose? My son was senselessly killed, for what? You shouldn’t have taken my son. I’m sad for my family, daughter, grandson, and his brother”.

Defense counsel Cox presented video footage of the incident. “This accident does not speak to the person he is today,” said Cox. 

“I’m not a bad guy,” the defendant told Judge Daniels. “I say yes sir, no sir, yes ma’am, no ma’am; I’ve made mistakes.” 

Judge Daniels granted defense counsel’s request for 35 years instead of the 40 years offered by the prosecutor. “A jury could easily find the defendant guilty of second-degree murder therefore making this sentence fair to both the victim and the defendant,” he said.  

“If you’d just walked away, you wouldn’t be here, and the victim would still be alive,” Judge Daniels said.

According to CBS Baltimore, on April 27, 2021, officers were called to the 1800 block of Bloomingdale Road at approximately 7:36 p.m. They found 43-year-old Kevin Adams suffering from a gunshot wound. The shooting occurred “following a dispute” between the two men in the Rosemont neighborhood, police said.