BALTIMORE — A plea deal on behalf of the teen accused of killing Timothy Reynolds in July is met with disappointment on one side and satisfaction on the other.
The family of Reynolds says this plea deal suggests murders have no consequences in Baltimore City.
While they held out hope trusting the process would be fair, there’s fear now it will be the exact opposite.
“In the context that we're in right now, what it does is it does bring it down from murder to manslaughter,” shared Attorney Warren Brown.
This was confirmed by the attorneys representing the teen Monday morning.
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The deal, if approved by a judge, would downgrade charges against the teen and move the case from adult to Juvenile court.
“There will be an admission to the fact that he did commit this act of manslaughter and probably a commitment to a juvenile facility somewhere inside of the state or outside the state even,” said Brown.
The Reynolds family considers the plea deal for the teen a total blindside.
“We are 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,” Reynold’s loved ones shared.
Over the weekend they learned about the deal calling it “an unconscionable betrayal."
Former Baltimore City State’s Attorney candidate Thiru Vignarajah is now representing the family pro-bono.
“The grand jury, upon reviewing that evidence, watching those videos, hearing from those witnesses returned an indictment for first degree murder,” he said.
He and the family reviewed said evidence with detectives Monday hopeful the public gets to see it for themselves.
“The public deserves to see the defendant retrieve a bag, pull a mask on, follow the victim and fire at him while he's helplessly disoriented five times,” said Vignarajah.
The defendant’s counsel though maintains their stance from day one that this is a case of self defense; but, they base the changes and venue on both law and logic.
“You look at the programming in juvenile court in the system, you look at the program in the adult system and whichever is best suited to repair this child, to define them, to make them safe, to be on the street and enhance public safety, that's who you go with. The problem with the state of Maryland is that they have nothing in the adult system for a juvenile,” said Brown.
