Defendant Pleads Guilty to 2018 Manslaughter

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Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Troy K. Hill sentenced a 24-year-old manslaughter defendant after he pleaded guilty to a 2018 homicide.

Terrance Belton was charged with manslaughter and firearm use in a felony violent crime for the murder of 32-year-old Edward Calloway in December 2018. He was found guilty for having a handgun on his person during the crime in 2020, along with Calloway’s murder, but the Supreme Court of Maryland reversed that decision in 2022.

Rather than proceed to another criminal trial, on June 11, Belton accepted the prosecution’s plea offer of 10 years, suspending all but three years, for manslaughter and 10 years, suspending all but five years without the possibility of parole for firearm use in a felony violent crime. Belton’s sentence for manslaughter will run consecutively to the sentence for firearm use. Upon release, he will be required to serve three years of probation, undergo screening for mental health and drug issues and complete any treatments deemed necessary.

Since Belton has been incarcerated since 2018, his sentences will begin from Dec. 20, 2018. As of Tuesday’s hearing, he has already served five years and five months. According to the Maryland Judiciary website, Belton has already completed his prison term of three years for having a handgun on his person.

Belton expressed concern over being placed in a jail without job placement programs and being “stuffed in a cell” with a negative cellmate. He wanted the judge to consider giving him home detention.

Defense attorney Isabel Lipman told her client he could file a motion to modify his sentence at a later date, but the plea offer had been negotiated without providing home detention.

Judge Hill found Belton guilty and sentenced him in line with the agreed-upon plea deal.

According to documents from the District Court of Maryland, Belton shot Calloway after Calloway had assaulted his mother on the 300 block of South Monroe Street on Dec. 6, 2018.

Belton’s mother appeared in the courtroom to support him.