A Baltimore City Circuit Court judge sentenced defendant James Darryl Smith to 40 years incarceration on May 15 for the murder of 32-year-old Dwayne Edmonds on Orleans Street in 2021.
Smith was accused of Edmonds murder after the victim was found with multiple gunshot wounds outside of a store on Orleans Street on June 21, 2021.
The defendant was initially charged with first-degree murder, firearm use in a crime of violence, having a handgun on his person and possessing a firearm as a minor. During Monday’s proceeding before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Charles Dorsey, the 21-year-old man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for a sentence of life, suspending all but 40 years, and five years of supervised probation and firearm use in a crime of violence for a concurrent 20 years.
He was represented by defense attorney James Sweeting III.
This plea differed slightly from another plea that the prosecution previously offered Smith in September 2022 and, again in February 2023, which would have had the defendant serve 50 years for first-degree murder.
