McHenry Street Stabbing Defendant Rejects Plea Offer

By Racquel Bazos - December 16, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | stabbing | Suspects | Victims |

On Dec. 15, a 50-year-old homicide defendant rejected a plea offer before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa M. Phinn.

Michael Atkinson is charged with first-degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon with intent to injure for the murder of 53-year-old Michael Raub.

The prosecution offered Atkinson a plea agreement of life, suspending all but 60 years, for first-degree murder with a concurrent three years for possession of a deadly weapon with intent to injure. Atkinson rejected this offer. 

Per the parties’ request, Judge Phinn scheduled Atkinson’s three-day trial to begin on May 21, 2024. 

At the end of the hearing, Atkinson told the court he was the sole provider for his family and asked if he could be eligible for home detention. Stand-in defense attorney Maureen Rowland told Atkinson she would ask his assigned public defender, Michael Cooper, to file the appropriate paperwork to get him another bail review hearing.

According to a Baltimore Police Department press release, officers responded to the 1600 block of McHenry Street on the morning of July 4. They found Raub with stab wounds to the chest. Medics transported him to University of Maryland Shock Trauma, where he later died. Police arrested Atkinson 10 days later on the 1500 block of Ramsay Street.