Mentally Ill Defendant Pleads Guilty to Ellwood Park Murder

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A 39-year-old Baltimore County man pleaded guilty to killing a man in Ellwood Park while he was off his anti-psychotic medication in Baltimore City Circuit Court June 6.

Jamel McClurkin, of Owings Mills, Md., was charged with first-degree murder, firearm use in a felony violent crime, two counts of illegal possession of a regulated firearm and carrying or transporting a handgun for the murder of 36-year-old Davon Jones in September 2023.

McClurkin pleaded guilty as part of a deal with the prosecution. For Jones’ murder, he will serve a sentence of life, suspending all but 45 years, with five years of supervised probation and a concurrent sentence of 20 years for firearm use in a felony violent crime, the first five years without the possibility of parole. Judge Barry G. Williams accepted McClurkin’s plea and found him guilty.

According to the prosecution’s statement of facts and charging documents, home surveillance video captured the murder on the 400 block of North Curley Street. Jones, McClurkin and another unidentified man all got into a physical altercation. The unidentified man shot Jones multiple times in the chest and McClurkin shot him in the head on Sept. 23.

Jones’ wife said of McClurkin in a statement to the judge, “He ruined my life, my marriage.” Then, looking at McClurkin, she said, “You have to deal with God.”

Jones’ daughter told McClurkin, “You took my dad from me. That was my best friend.”

Defense attorney Karyn Meriwether advised the court that McClurkin was a schizophrenic and cocaine addict. Though he was diagnosed with schizophrenia in his late teens and had been taking medication in compliance with federal probation, he had stopped taking it at the time of the murder.

In his statement to the court, McClurkin only told Jones’ family he was sorry.

Judge Williams imposed the agreed-upon sentence. He said he would recommend McClurkin to the Patuxent Eligible Person Program, an intensive psychotherapy program offered by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.