Man Accused of Shooting Up A Family’s Vehicle Near Mondawmin Mall Gets August Retrial

By Andrew Michaels - March 16, 2023
Attempted Murder | Court | Daily Stories | Non-Fatal Shooting | Shooting | Suspects |

A 21-year-old Baltimore man previously convicted of a 2018 attempted murder will have his retrial this August following the court’s violation of the defendant’s right to be present for his suppression hearing.

On March 15, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa Copeland scheduled the five-day jury trial of Delmel Johnson for Aug. 7 before Judge Timothy Doory. The prosecution and defense attorney Megan Lewis—standing in for Robert Linthicum—informed the judge that plea negotiations were still underway.

According to an unreported opinion from Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals and court documents, a family of four was leaving Mondawmin Mall after Christmas shopping on Dec. 9, 2018, and stopped at a red light when a white car pulled in front of them. A black car then pulled alongside the white car and a man with a gun got out of the passenger’s side and walked to the family’s driver’s side window.

The gunman—later identified as Johnson—told the driver to get out of the car, the opinion states, and opened fire. Five to seven gunshots were fired at the vehicle, injuring the driver and his daughter.

Johnson was tried and convicted of multiple counts of attempted second-degree murder and weapons charges as well as reckless endangerment and attempted robbery in 2019 and sentenced to 40 years in 2021.

The unreported opinion states that Johnson’s case was remanded to circuit court in November 2022 after the defendant and his counsel argued that the defendant was “involuntarily absent” during a suppression hearing and that “the court deprived him of his right to confront the witnesses who testified against him.”