Man Takes Time Served for Firing Gun After Midnight in Celebration of New Year’s

By Andrew Michaels - September 7, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Non-Fatal Shooting | Shooting | Suspects |

“Get firecrackers if you want to celebrate.”

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Martin Schreiber gave this parting advice to 35-year-old Norman Jackson on Sept. 6 after the defendant accepted a plea offer for firing a handgun in celebration of the New Year.

During Tuesday’s proceedings, Judge Schreiber repeatedly warned Jackson that should he violate his probation, he would face a decade in prison as part of the prosecution’s plea deal of 10 years, suspending all but the 248 days time served, and three years probation for firearm possession with a felony conviction. Jackson must also register as a gun offender under the plea.

The maximum sentence for this charge is 15 years. Jackson’s original charges included having a firearm in a drug trafficking crime, discharging firearms, having a handgun on his person, having a loaded handgun on his person, and two counts of narcotic possession with the intent to distribute.

According to the prosecution, two Baltimore Police officers were driving along the 1000 block of Druid Hill Avenue just after midnight on Jan. 1 when they heard “very loud gunshots” coming from the 1000 block of Stoddard Court. Seconds after the officers turned onto Stoddard Court; they saw a man wearing a black jacket, pants, hat, and face mask and carrying a black bag.

The suspect, later identified as Jackson, ran from the officers but was soon apprehended on McCulloh Street near the 400 block of Oxford Court. Following his arrest, one of the officers backtracked Jackson’s path on Oxford Court and found a semi-automatic handgun that was warm to the touch and had an empty magazine.

Twelve shell casings matching the same handgun were also found where officers had seen Jackson standing, in addition to a loaded magazine and suspected marijuana, crack cocaine, and heroin found in the defendant’s pockets.

“This city is absolutely being ripped apart by gun violence,” Judge Schreiber told Jackson, whose defense attorney, Donald Wright, said he was released from prison in 2014 for an armed robbery conviction in 2011. “If you violate probation, you’re backing up to 10 years, and you’re too old for that.”