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By
Tomas Coles
- March 3, 2025
Court
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Daily Stories
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Homicides
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Shooting
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Suspects
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Victims
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Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Alan C. Lazerow sentenced murder defendant Reginald Peay to life- plus 20 years incarceration on Feb. 28.
Peay was previously found guilty of first-degree murder, firearm use in a felony or violent crime, firearm possession with a prior felony conviction, and stealing a pistol in connection to the March 15, 2024 fatal shooting of Lenora Alston, 35.
Peay will serve the first five years of his sentence without possibility of parole. Judge Lazerow imposed a lesser sentence than the prosecution’s initial request – a maximum sentence of life plus 40 years, the first ten years without possibility of parole.
According to charging documents, officers responded to a report of a shooting in the 1000 block of N. Fulton Avenue. Investigators found that at around 1:46 a.m., Peay, using the alias “Ratchet,” texted Alston that he was in a white Chevrolet Malibu.
Officers obtained a warrant for Peay’s arrest and eventually detained him after a brief foot chase, during which Peay discarded a Glock 23 semi-automatic pistol, later found to be Alston’s, on the roof of a building. Officers towed the Chevrolet Malibu as part of their investigation.
Though officers later determined that the Glock 23 was not the weapon used in the homicide, the prosecution concluded that Peay unloaded a full ten-round clip round into Alston, who then tried to crawl to her mother’s residence for safety.
Both the Alston’s and Peay’s mothers were present at the hearing and took the opportunity to address the court.
Alston’s mother expressed sorrow, saying the loss of her daughter left her with “a spiritual and physical hole that could not be filled.”
Peay’s mother apologized to the victim’s family but said the court had portrayed her son, who was never violent, as a monster.
Defense attorney Natalie A. Finegar said that exceeding the guidelines for Peay’s sentencing would be inappropriate, emphasizing that the Glock 23 belonged not to her client, but to Alston.