Three life sentences for Pasadena man
Killed a Glen Burnie man; shot two officers during manhunt
A Pasadena man convicted of murdering a Glen Burnie man and shooting two Anne Arundel County detectives pursuing him was sentenced Friday to three consecutive life sentences with the possibility of parole.
Joseph Willis, 23, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for bludgeoning Christopher Lawrence Jones, 44, to death with a sledgehammer while he slept in his Glen Burnie home on Feb. 5, 2020. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder for seriously injuring two officers by shooting them with a gun he stole from Jones’ house while evading authorities.
The shooting on Feb. 6, 2020, ignited a 16-hour manhunt that turned a Stony Beach neighborhood into a militarized zone, locking residents in their homes and closing nearby county schools. A mob of 50 Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City police and SWAT officers scoured the land and water in the rain, looking for Willis. He was later discovered hiding with three people and a stash of drugs in a home on the peninsula.
Judge Michael Wachs sentenced Willis to three consecutive life
sentences for the murder and two attempted murders. Wachs said there was no doubt that Willis intended to kill detectives Scott Ballard and Ian Preece when he opened fire into their cars in separate incidents. Ballard was shot in the face and critically injured. Preece was shot multiple times and suffered a severe injury to his arm. After a year of extensive rehabilitation, both officers returned to work in January.
Willis received another eight years and six months for violating his probation in a 2018 robbery conviction. Wachs suggested he serve the time at Patuxent Institution in Jessup as part of its mental health program.
“It’s every law enforcement officers and their families’ worse nightmare. It’s a dangerous job and even more dangerous when you run into the likes of Mr. Willis,” Wachs said. “Plain and simple, he’s a danger to the community. I don’t think he has regard for the sanctity of life.”
After killing Jones, Willis stole his Toyota Camry and ransacked the upstairs level where a roommate lived, stealing jewelry and other items. Ballard, a 22-year police veteran, located Willis in the stolen car and attempted to pull him over around 11 p.m. on Feb. 5, 2020, at the Anne Arundel County-Baltimore City line. Willis fired into Ballard’s car and hit him in the face.
The bullet passed through Ballard’s jaw, breaking his mandible. He drove himself to the gas station for help after texting his fellow agents on the fugitive apprehension team. Members of the fugitive apprehension force and other police officers packed the courtroom Friday.
After prosecutors showed a picture of Ballard critically injured in a hospital bed, Ballard thanked his police family in an emotional testimony for responding so quickly. His jaw was later wired shut and required reconstructive surgery. Ballard said Friday a bone graft was unsuccessful, and he will need additional surgery to rebuild his gums.
Preece chased Willis into Stony Beach in a rainy, hydroplaning high-speed pursuit. Willis shot a bullet in Preece’s car, grazed his torso and struck his headrest before Preece crashed into his car on the lawn of a Stony Beach townhouse. Willis ran away, and Preece, a 14-year police veteran, was transported to the hospital. Preece said Friday the bullet turned his bone into “confetti” and took months to regain mobility. Officers found at least 12 shell casings involved in the cash.
“Every day, I wake up, and I’m in pain from this,” Preece said Friday.
Prosecutors on Friday played a phone call between Willis and a friend on March 7, 2021, to the courtroom filled with officers, Jones’ family and Willis’ friends.
On the call, Willis advises his friend that the police officers will be at the hearing. Willis said his mother told him ‘This is serious’ and ‘Make sure nobody laughs,’” he said, chuckling over the phone.
“Most things people find horrifying we find funny,” Willis said.
Public defenders Tiffany Holley and Heather Tierney described Willis as a deeply troubled young man who was neglected and traumatized his entire childhood. Tierney said Willis struggles with multiple mood disorders and started using drugs at an early age to cope with his father’s physical and emotional abuse. Willis was incarcerated as a juvenile for robbery and released when he turned 18. His dark past fractured his ability to make reasonable decisions, Holley said.
“Obviously, this is a tragic case,” Holley said outside the courtroom. “Our sentencing presentation discussed how this tragedy occurred and why we, unfortunately, got where we did.”
Wachs acknowledged that the juvenile justice system is broken and failed to rehabilitate Willis when he was incarcerated as a teenager. Wachs said that “inhumane conditions” at correctional facilities were unlikely to help Willis heal from his trauma or treat the behavioral effects of his mental illness.
“But it’s the only place I can send him,” Wachs said.
Willis, who had sold drugs for Jones, was staying with Jones in his Glen Burnie home when Willis killed him. Willis said Friday he was on hallucinogenic drugs when he repeatedly hit a sleeping Jones over the head with a sledgehammer. Willis then made a cocktail of ammonia and bleach to suffocate Jones. He took a photo of Jones’ body after.
Willis said he killed Jones because he wanted to stop selling drugs for him, and later that he was enraged after Jones showed him a video of a child being molested.
State prosecutor Jason Steinhardt said there is no evidence Jones ever possessed child pornography. Jones’ mother, Patricia Bosse, said her son was using drugs but was a peaceful and kind man. She said the molestation allegation was unfounded.
“You took my son, and now you’re going to make him look like something he’s not?” Bosse said.
Willis, whose upsidedown cross tattoo peaked above his black mask, wept into his hands when his mother, Mechelle Fischer, testified Friday, apologizing for being absent in his youth and for the physical pain Ballard and Preece still endure daily. Willis joined the hearing over video conference. He said he’s been held in isolation for a month.
He apologized to Jones’ family and the officers that were hospitalized.
“I’ll probably never make it home,” Willis said before his life sentence was handed down.
Anne Arundel County Public Schools announced Thursday that schools would stop processing requests to change a student’s enrollment from virtual to hybrid as they seek to smooth out “bumps in the road” as students return to buildings.
This winter guardians were asked to respond to a survey selecting their preference of either virtual learning or hybrid learning two days a week for their student. Initially, 39% of elementary students, 36% of middle school students and 34% of high school students chose to participate in hybrid learning.
People who didn’t respond to the survey, as many as half a school in some cases, automatically continued virtual learning.
Superintendent George Arlotto had said individual schools would work with parents who wanted to switch to make a change if there was enough space in classrooms and on the bus, if the student needed transportation.
In the weeks since the system has started welcoming back large groups of students, including elementary learners and 9th and 12th graders this week, they have received more and more requests to change a student’s enrollment from virtual to hybrid, officials said in a media release Thursday.
It was announced that schools would stop processing requests to change schools, until a new procedure for guardians to switch enrollment is announced in the coming weeks.
Getting settled into the hybrid environment right now is what matters, Arlotto said in the statement.
“We will move more students into hybrid as soon as we can in as many schools as we can. The time to do that is not now, however, so we need to briefly halt changes and additions to classrooms and buses,” he said.
The pandemic arrived in Anne Arundel County on March 11, 2020, and this community changed forever.
Today, The Capital begins a deep look into how we got here, what’s changed and where we go from here. We want you to join the conversation.
In 300 words or less, tell us when you first realized how much would change? What have you lost in the last year? What have you gained? How do you think the community will change as the spread of COVID falls and vaccinations spread? What are your hopes for the future?
What you tell us is up to you.
You can send a letter to the editor by emailing us at capletts@capgaznews.com. Or if you prefer to submit it through our website, we’re offering an online form.
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