Wednesday morning's plea hearing for Rakim Raid Muhammed has been postponed because his lawyer was tied up with another trial in Baltimore City and couldn't get to Bel Air in time, the judge in the Muhammed trial said. The hearing will reconvene either later Wednesday or Thursday. Check back with http://www.exploreharford.com for updates.
A Parkville man charged in connection with a July 2010 murder in a downtown Bel Air American Legion post parking lot is expected to plead guilty Wednesday morning to second-degree murder and use of a handgun in a felony, according to the town's police chief.
At the town work session Tuesday evening, Bel Air Police Chief Leo Matrangola informed other town officials of the expected plea of 21-year-old Rakim Raid Muhammad. The chief also said prosecutors will recommend that Muhammad be sentenced to 25 years in prison.
If the judge agrees to the sentence, Muhammad, who is also known by Rakin Muhammad in court records, could be out of prison in 18 to 19 years, Matrangola added. Matrangola's department was the lead investigating agency in the case.
Muhammad, who was 20 at the time, is accused of shooting and killing Derrick Maxey Jr., 25, of Aberdeen, outside American Legion Post 55, in the 100 block of North Bond Street in Bel Air, in the early hours of Sunday, July 18, 2010. A 15-year-old Edgewood girl was hit by stray gunfire.
Police have said the shooting occurred while an unsanctioned party was going on inside the legion.
Muhammad, 21, who fled the scene and was eventually found hiding in a Baltimore rowhouse in November 2010, was charged with first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm, firearm possession with a felony conviction, possessing a firearm or ammunition under the age of 21, carrying a handgun on his person, using a handgun in a violent crime and two counts of first-degree assault.
After Muhammad was identified as the suspect in the Bel Air shooting, Matrangola said the motive for the shooting may have been retaliation from a 2007 street brawl in Edgewood that involved Muhammad and members of the dead man's family, including Mr. Maxey's stepfather, who was seriously injured in the brawl.
A jury trial for Muhammad had been scheduled to begin Monday morning at the Harford County Circuit Courthouse but was postponed, according to online court records. A plea hearing was scheduled in its place Wednesday morning before Harford Circuit Judge Emory Plitt Jr.