Retrial for Attempted Murder of a Family Near Mondawmin Mall Postponed

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A Baltimore City Circuit Court judge postponed a previously convicted attempted murder defendant’s retrial on Aug. 8 to review new evidence for the shooting of a family’s car.

Judge Melissa M. Phinn granted the defense’s motion to postpone defendant Delmel Johnson’s hearing to review more than 70 surveillance videos, some over two hours long, not used in the original trial.

Defense attorneys Jennifer Lyman and Robert Linthicum also wanted to interview officers who prepared a photo array used to identify the 22-year-old defendant.

The defense is “entitled to get this done,” said Phinn. Judge Phinn postponed the hearing to Oct. 16 for scheduling.

A jury previously found Johnson guilty of multiple counts of attempted second-degree murder, weapons charges, reckless endangerment and attempted robbery in 2019. He was sentenced z to 40 years in 2021.

According to our previous reporting, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals remanded Johnson’s case in November 2022. A retrial was granted because the defendant was involuntarily absent for an evidentiary hearing, which deprived him of his right to confront the witnesses who testified against him.

Johnson is charged in connection to a Dec. 9, 2018, non-fatal shooting of a family of four. Court documents state that the family was driving home from Mondawmin Mall when a car pulled up next to them at a stop light. The defendant allegedly got out of his car and demanded the victims get out of their car. The assailant shot into the car several times when they refused, hitting the father and his young daughter. The daughter faced life-threatening wounds and was put into an induced coma for treatment at Shock Trauma.

Two Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) officers recognized the assailant as Delmel Johnson from distributed surveillance video stills. The victim identified the defendant as the shooter and remembered him following his family around the mall.

Johnson is charged with one count of attempted first-degree murder, four counts of attempted second-degree murder, three counts each of first-degree assault and second-degree assault, firearm use in a felony violent crime and reckless endangerment. He is also charged with attempted armed robbery, robbery, having a handgun on his person and discharging a firearm.

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