Trio Sentenced in 2020 Fatal Bus Stop Shooting

By Andrew Michaels - February 3, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

A Baltimore City Circuit Court judge handed down three respective sentences on Feb. 2 for the remaining co-defendants who were found guilty of the murders of Kendrick Brown and William Barrett in 2020.

Kevin Cleveland, 29, Jabez Johnson, 20, Antoine Trent, 21, and Damien Mickens, 20, were found guilty in June 2022 in connection to the fatal shooting at a bus stop in the afternoon of April 10, 2020, on the 100 block of E. Patapsco Avenue. The four defendants approached the victims for a hand-to-hand transaction, the prosecutor said, which quickly turned into a shootout.

Trent was later convicted of fatally shooting Brown, while Mickens and Johnson fired their guns at Barrett, who attempted to run away after being shot by Mickens.

This incident was “clearly a planned ambush,” the prosecutor told Judge Jennifer Schiffer on Thursday. “They are each responsible for their own actions as well as the actions of the other.”

Mickens was sentenced to 123 years in prison last October before Judge Schiffer, who sentenced the other co-defendants as follows:

• Cleveland: life, suspending all but 40 years, for two counts of conspiracy to commit murder;
• Johnson: life, suspending all but 75 years, for conspiracy to murder, second-degree murder, and assault and weapons charges; and
• Trent: life for first-degree murder, multiple counts of conspiracy to murder, and weapons charges.

During the proceedings, Cleveland, Johnson, and Trent sat together with their defense attorneys—Andrea Jaskulsky, Larry Rogers, and Natalie Finegar, respectively—each of whom addressed the court.

Jaskulsky and Rogers echoed each other’s statements, explaining that having the co-defendants tried together might have swayed the jury’s verdict in finding each of their clients responsible for the actions of another co-defendant. Both defense attorneys also requested a motion for a new trial, which Judge Schiffer denied.

Finegar later described Trent as “extremely bright,” with what his mother expected to be a successful future. Trent’s mother publicly apologized for her son’s actions, saying he wasn’t in his right mind.

“I feel like Baltimore failed us,” she said to the victims’ families, detailing her son’s upbringing around drugs and violence. “I believe these streets are failing these kids.”

Brown’s grandmother and Barrett’s parents were also present and expressed their sadness during their victim impact statements.

“I hope you feel one day in life what I feel,” Brown’s grandmother said to the co-defendants.

“I hope y’all suffer every day,” added Barrett’s mother, who leaned over the prosecutor’s table, maintaining eye contact with the co-defendants.

The prosecutor concluded by telling Judge Schiffer that “the cycle of violence needs to stop.”