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Racquel Bazos
- October 3, 2023
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On Oct. 3, a 45-year-old man accused of murder declined a plea offer before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa M. Phinn.
Donte Simms is charged with first-degree murder, firearm use in a felony violent crime and firearm possession with a felony conviction in connection to the Aug. 15, 2022, murder of 35-year-old Eric Plater.
The prosecutor offered Simms a plea agreement for a sentence of life, suspending all but 40 years, with five years of supervised probation for first-degree murder and a concurrent 10 years, the first five years without the possibility of parole, for firearm use in a felony violent crime. Defense attorney Bradley L. MacFee told Judge Phinn his client rejected the offer.
Simms and MacFee will next appear in court for Simms’ jury trial, scheduled to begin on Feb. 8, 2024, before Baltimore City Circuit Judge Dana M. Middleton.
Documents from the District Court of Maryland state that Baltimore Police Department (BPD) officers responded to a barber shop on the 300 block of Park Avenue for reports of an overdose. Medics arrived before police and were transporting Plater to Shock Trauma, where he would later be pronounced dead of gunshot wounds. Police used witnesses and surveillance footage to identify Simms as a suspect.
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