Juvenile court called for in squeegee teen’s prosecution
Victim’s family objects to recommendation by prosecutors for plea in July Inner Harbor shooting
Baltimore prosecutors and defense attorneys for the teenage squeegee worker accused of fatally shooting a baseball bat-wielding man near the Inner Harbor in July agree the boy’s case should be resolved in juvenile court.
The lawyers also reached an agreement that would see the teen plead guilty to manslaughter and be remanded to the custody of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, where youths serve sentences by completing programs tailored to shaping them into productive adults.
Terms of the proposed deal came to light Monday when the family of 48-year-old Hampden resident Timothy Reynolds, who was shot dead at the busy intersection of East Conway and Light Streets after approaching a group of window washers with a metal bat, spoke out about the case for the first time.
Flanked by their own attorneys at a news conference, Reynolds’ relatives blasted outgoing Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby for her administration’s handling of the case. The relatives said they weren’t consulted about the terms of the agreement and felt like their voices as crime victims were being overlooked.
The teen faces first-degree murder and firearms offenses stemming from the July 7 shooting, which sparked renewed public debate about how the city should deal with the boys and young men who have for decades sought to clean motorists’ windshields for a few dollars.
News of the agreement between the teen’s lawyers and prosecutors comes ahead of a Thursday hearing in the case to determine whether his case is resolved in adult court, where he’s currently charged, or in juvenile court, where sentences focus on restoration rather than punishment.
Tried as an adult, the teen could face up to life in prison if convicted. If the facts of his case are substantiated and he is found to be “delinquent” in juvenile court, state law says he can be kept in custody up to his 21st birthday.
It will be up to Circuit Judge Charles Dorsey to decide first whether the case is remanded to juvenile court and then whether to accept the plea agreement reached by prosecutors and the defense. It’s unclear whether both issues will be handled during Thursday morning’s hearing at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, which is closed to the press and public.
“We’re just crushed, and we just want justice,” Reynolds’ widow, Shannon, told reporters Monday morning.
Shannon Reynolds said she was “blindsided” Friday when the prosecutor assigned to the case called her and relayed the plea
offer. She said she had lost faith in the criminal justice system and called for Mosby to recuse herself from the case.
Reynolds’ sister, Rebecca “Becky” Reynolds, said the family is “being further victimized by the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, who took an oath to fight for the victim, and the victim is not being fought for here.”
Former Maryland Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah, who has twice run unsuccessfully for Baltimore State’s Attorney and once for mayor, is representing the family for free, he and the family said.
Vignarajah called the plea offer extended by prosecutors “laughable,” saying it would “essentially amount to him being returned to the juvenile system, spending perhaps nine months in custody and then released.”
Defense attorney Natalie Finegar, who is not involved in the case, said it’s common for those convicted in juvenile court to be required to complete six- or nine-month programs, but that they also could be asked to complete multiple programs and are not released without a judge’s discretion.
“It’s treatment-oriented, and it depends a lot on how the kid is doing and the judge’s assessment of what is appropriate at that point,” Finegar told The Baltimore Sun.
Representing the teen,
who was 14 at the time of the fatal shooting, are attorneys J. Wyndal Gordon and Warren Brown. They have sought to have his case transferred to juvenile court since they took on his defense, while maintaining he acted in self-defense or to protect others from a grown man armed with a bat.
Gordon and Brown called their own news conference Monday afternoon to defend the agreement reached with prosecutors after what Gordon described as “very intense and robust negotiations.”
Brown said the law makes clear that a judge’s decision
over whether a child should be tried in adult or juvenile court is supposed to center on which system is best prepared to rehabilitate the child. He said a report prepared by the state juvenile services agency ahead of Thursday’s hearing outlined several programs suitable for the teen to succeed.
“That’s what the juvenile system is there for. It’s there to deal with young people. It’s there to deal with [the teen charged]. It’s there to mend them and put them back on the streets rather than send them to the state penitentiary,” Brown told reporters.
In a statement Monday evening, Mosby defended her office’s decision to recommend the teen’s case be resolved in juvenile court while maintaining that her office has been in communication with Reynolds’ “grief stricken family from day one.”
“While the actions of this juvenile are wholly unacceptable and inexcusable, we stand firm in our ultimate recommendation to the judge that this case be held in the juvenile court system,” Mosby said. “Juvenile court exists for a reason, and our decision is based on all the facts and circumstances pertaining to the actions of a 14-year-old minor.”
Mosby pointed out that it’s up to the judge to decide whether the case is tried in juvenile court, citing a recent case where her office and defense attorneys supported a teen’s case being transferred there but a judge rejected that decision.
Even if that happens, Finegar said, Mosby has options if she believes the case should go to juvenile court: If Mosby’s office drops the premeditated murder charge, the Circuit Court no longer has jurisdiction over the teen’s case.
Police say Timothy Reynolds
got out of his car that July afternoon with a baseball bat near the bustling downtown intersection after an interaction with the squeegee workers there. A motorist’s dashcam captured part of the incident, and although the footage, obtained by The Sun, picks up after the initial confrontation, it shows Reynolds, still holding the bat, walking away from the intersection.
The workers begin to follow him, and a car obstructs the view of the next interaction, but the workers are seen running away as Reynolds chases them with the bat raised. He swings at one of them, missing, when another throws a rock, hitting him in the head. A third worker shot at Reynolds five times, killing him.
Reynolds’ family, having previously declined to watch footage of his killing, viewed video of it for the first time Monday morning at the state’s attorney’s office, Michael Snyder, one of the attorneys pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit against the city on behalf of Reynolds’ family, told reporters Monday.
Rebecca Reynolds said the family waited to watch the video before taking a public stance about the case.
After watching the footage, Shannon Reynolds said the video shows that her husband was killed deliberately.
“There was absolutely no justification,” she said, for the teen to claim self-defense as his lawyers have done.