A Baltimore City judge will consider defense counsel’s request to suspend the remainder of a convicted homicide defendant’s life sentence considering his declining health.
Cumberland resident Quinton Heard, 46, is serving a life sentence for a homicide committed in 1996.
Heard was originally sentenced to life, suspending all but 23 years, in 1997 and was released in 2011. The defendant has since faced multiple violations of probation, including an alleged shooting on Interstate 95 in 2015. Although a jury failed three times to reach a unanimous verdict in connection to those charges, Heard was found guilty of violating his probation and received his suspended life sentence.
A motion to modify his sentence was filed in 2021, with a hearing postponed in September.
During a Zoom hearing on Nov. 29, defense attorney Mark Van Bavel cited his client’s ongoing health issues, including a stroke in 2017 and heart problems in the years to follow, and provided the court with documentation. The attorney asked Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Kendra Ausby to suspend the balance of Heard’s sentence, noting that his client has been “soundly punished” for his actions.
The prosecution argued that Heard had received his second chance with his original sentence of 23 years. Although aware that a life sentence is “a severe punishment,” the prosecutor said, Heard’s violation of probation was similar to his first crime except, fortunately, no one was killed.
Judge Ausby told counsel she would review the documentation and provide her ruling at a later date.
