Judge Holds Defendant for Violating Probation Pending Homicide Indictment

By LaTrina Antoine - October 29, 2021
Court | Daily Stories | Home Page | Homicides | Non-Fatal Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

A judge decided to continue to hold a man who was convicted of several non-fatal shooting crimes in 2017 after he violated probation.

During a zoom collateral hearing Oct. 28, defense attorney Robert Cole requested that his client, Reginald Turner be released from jail in Baltimore City and put into private home detention. Turner has been held since September 2020 for violating his probation.

According to the Maryland Judiciary website, Turner was convicted for firearm possession with a felony conviction, illegal possession of a registered firearm, carrying or wearing a handgun on his person, having a handgun in a vehicle on a public road, shooting and discharging a handgun, making a false statement to the police, and illegal possession of ammo on Dec. 1, 2017. After spending days in jail, Turner was put on supervised probation.

Turner is also pending a homicide case in DC, but an indictment for the second-degree murder charge has not been secured. According to the prosecutor, the Assistant United States Attorney over the DC case expects a Grand Jury proceeding to be held in either the second or third week of November.

Turner is set for a status hearing in the DC case for March 11, 2022.

According to D.C. Witness, Turner, a resident of Southeast, DC, is charged with second-degree murder while armed for allegedly shooting Malik Muhammad, who is a resident of Bowie Md., in the back of the neck, lower back, and upper left back on the 800 block of Taylor Street, NE on Nov. 26, 2018. Muhammad, 37, was transported to an area hospital where he succumbed to his injuries on Dec. 1, 2018. 

Turner was released on personal recognizance in 2020 to take care of his Maryland matters.

The defendant was also convicted of assault in Prince George’s County in 2020.

It is “completely irresponsible to consider home detention with someone of that kind of background,” the prosecutor told the judge Thursday.

Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill decided to set Turner’s next hearing in his violation of probation case for Dec. 20, giving the prosecution time to secure an indictment in the DC homicide case.

Judge Fletcher-Hill also told Cole that if an indictment was not returned from DC, he would take up the issue of pretrial release at the December hearing.