Homicide Defendant Gets Trial Date, Despite Reduced Plea Offer

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After several postponements, counsel agreed on a June trial date for 29-year-old Matthew Lipscomb for a homicide in July 2017.

Lipscomb is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to first-degree murder, and two weapons charges concerning an incident on July 1, 2017. On March 10, the defendant and his defense attorney, Natalie Finegar, appeared in reception court before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn, who set his five-day trial to begin June 20 before Judge Paul Alpert.

Lipscomb was found not guilty of an attempted murder that occurred months before the aforementioned case on March 1, 2017, at Fauji Grocery Mart.

Earlier in the proceedings, Finegar informed Judge Phinn that the case had faced several postponements, some of which were due to changes in the assistant state’s attorney prosecuting the case.

A prosecutor standing in for the assigned assistant state’s attorney also shared a plea offer of 30 years for second-degree murder and 20 years, the first five years without parole, for firearm use in a felony violent crime. The prosecutor said he did not know if the sentences would run concurrently or consecutively; however, Finegar responded that her client rejected the offer.

The offer was significantly reduced from the previous offer of life that was discussed in 2021.

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