Murder Defendant in 2021 Neighbor Dispute Accepts Plea

By Cooper Griffiths [former] - July 26, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

On July 25, a Georgia resident accepted a guilty plea for the murder of his mother’s neighbor before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Charles J. Peters. 

Alejandro Gonzalez and his defense counsel Jeremy Eldridge accepted a plea of 10 years, suspending all but two years with three years of supervised probation for first-degree murder. Gonzalez is also required to have no contact with the victim’s family.

According to court documents, Gonzalez, 40, was visiting his mother in Baltimore at her apartment located at the 5000 block of Corley Road. 

His mother had been complaining about multiple disputes regarding trash and marijuana usage coming from the people living directly above her, the victim, Travis Ben-Watkins, 28, and his girlfriend were living above her at the time. 

On Sept. 4, 2021, Ben-Watkins came downstairs and called Gonzalez’s mother an obscenity. Ben-Watkins then broke a wooden chair and used a piece of it to attack Gonzalez. From that point, Gonzalez grabbed the gun that his mother kept in the house and shot the victim. After the shooting, Gonzalez left the apartment and drove away in his car with his girlfriend and two kids. 

Gonzalez’s mother also stated that her son suffers from PTSD from being an army veteran with previous combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gonzalez is charged with first-degree murder, use of a firearm in a felony violent crime, and having a loaded handgun on his person in connection to the incident.