Police: Anne Arundel homicide victim ‘was afraid’ she’d be killed
A Severn homicide victim and her alleged killer were involved in a drug deal that erupted in gunfire two days before the woman was stabbed to death, court records show.
Anne Arundel County police announced Tuesday they have charged a Glen Burnie man in the killing of Jasmine S. Adams, 29, on Aug. 15. She was a mother of two, and on the morning of her killing, she messaged an acquaintance saying she was afraid she would be killed, according to court documents.
Dominic R. Sanchez, 39, is charged with first-degree murder and assault in her death. Police served the charges on him Monday at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center, where he was being held without bond on attempted murder charges stemming from the Aug. 13 shooting in Glen Burnie.
Sanchez did not have an attorney listed in court records for the murder charges. Bridget Elis, a public defender representing Sanchez on the attempted murder case, could not be reached for comment.
In the charging documents in the latest case, police connected the drug deal gone bad and Adams’ slaying.
Officers were called Aug. 15 to the 1800 block of Hawk Court after Adams’ father discovered her body in the basement. The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide caused by “numerous sharp force injuries.”
Two days earlier, county police had responded to University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie after a man drove himself to the ambulance bay with a gunshot wound, according to records. The victim told officers he planned to sell marijuana, but his customer pulled out a gun and shot him.
After an extensive investigation that included search warrants for cellphones, detectives identified Sanchez as the shooter, according to charging documents, and arrested him in February.
According to court records related to Sanchez’s murder charge, Adams arranged the drug deal between Sanchez and the man he’s accused of shooting. Adams was one of two people who knew Sanchez shot the man, according to the charging documents.
Police also located a person — whomthey did not identify — who exchanged messages with Adams the morning she was found dead. The messages, police wrote, indicated Adams “was afraid” Sanchez would kill her because of what she knew about the Aug. 13 shooting. Adams sent her last message to that person at 5:39 a.m., police wrote.
State police investigators told county officers Sanchez has been barred from possessing firearms since 1998 because of previous convictions. Court records show he pleaded guilty in 2000 to second-degree murder in Baltimore.
Sanchez has pleaded not guilty to the Glen Burnie shooting.