by Office of the State’s Attorney for Howard Count
A Baltimore man who was shot in the face during a late-night altercation at an Ellicott City Walmart store last fall has been sentenced to one year in jail. Matthew Allen Spencer, 24, of the 100 block of Hillvale Road was sentenced by Howard County Circuit Court Judge William V. Tucker this morning. A county grand jury indicted Spencer earlier this year and he pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment on July 10, 2018.
Police were called to the store in the 3200 block of North Ridge Road around midnight on October 8, 2017 for a report of shots fired. Officers arrived and after a brief chase, stopped a vehicle in which Spencer was a passenger. At July’s plea hearing, Assistant State’s Attorney Tricia Cecil stated that an auxiliary police officer checking for handicap parking violations observed Spencer leave the store, remove a rifle from his trunk and fire the weapon towards the Walmart sign over the store entrance. Spencer then returned to his vehicle with the weapon and drove away at a high rate of speed.
Store surveillance video and eyewitness accounts showed that two men had some sort of verbal and non-verbal interaction as Spencer exited the store. Spencer then returned to the store for another interaction resulting in De’Andre Edward Eason pulling a handgun from his waistband and shooting Spencer. Eason, 20 of the 3100 block of West Springs Drive, Ellicott City pleaded guilty to one count of attempted second-degree murder and a firearm charge in March and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In her sentencing remarks, Cecil noted that even though Spencer was not pointing the rifle at anybody, “anytime you fire a firearm in a public place you are putting public safety at risk.” Spencer’s attorney told that court that the gunshots were meant as “a warning shot” to Spencer’s assailant.
Judge Tucker sentenced Spencer to five years, suspending all but one year to be served at the Howard County Detention Center. He ordered Spencer to forfeit the weapon and placed him on two years of supervised probation, along with additional conditions upon release.
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