1 Year Home Detention For Shotgun Assault On Agent
ELKTON, MD — A judge sentenced a man to one year of home confinement Monday after the defendant accepted a plea deal in a criminal case relating to him pointing a shotgun at two employees as they attempted to repossess a tractor on his Earleville property in March, according to court records.
Cecil County Circuit Court Judge Cameron A. Brown imposed a 10-year sentence on John Walter Booth, 62, for first-degree assault and then suspended nine years of the penalty, court records show.
The judge then placed Booth on one year of home detention, qualifying that he would be allowed to leave his Earleville residence only for employment and medical and court appointments, according to court records, which further show that Brown gave Booth credit for 35 days that he served in jail as a pre-trial inmate after his arrest.
In addition, Brown ordered Booth to serve 24 months of supervised probation after completing his one-year home confinement term, court records show. The judge forbid Booth from possessing any firearms.
Booth pleaded guilty to first-degree assault, which is punishable by up to 25 years in prison, during Monday’s courtroom hearing as part of plea agreement reached by Assistant State’s Attorney Nicole Kelly and Booth’s defense lawyer, Brittany Michelle Collins, who is based in Pocomoke City.
As part of the plea bargain, prosecutors dismissed eight related charges against Booth, including use of a firearm in the commission of a felony or a crime of violence, reckless endangerment and an additional first-degree assault count.
The incident leading to Booth’s conviction and sentence occurred at approximately 12:40 p.m. on March 4 on his property in the 200 block of Pinewood Road, and it was captured on video by a dashboard camera inside the truck used by the repossession workers — corroborating the account of the gun-related assault that they gave to Maryland State Police investigators, court records show.
MSP troopers assigned to the North East Barrack responded to the scene after receiving a dispatch regarding a man pointing a long gun at a repossession worker and refusing to put it down, police said. Troopers later learned that the suspect put the gun back into his shed before they arrived, police added.
The repossession workers — two men, ages 35 and 47 — told investigators that they were on Booth’s property to repossess a tractor; that they contacted Booth; and that they notified him of their intent, court records show.
At that point, Booth told the workers that they were not taking the tractor and retrieved a shotgun from a nearby shed. Booth racked the shotgun and pointed it at the younger of the two repossession workers, as he sat on the tractor, and then at the other employee, as he retreated to the company truck, according to court records.
Investigators confiscated a shotgun after finding it inside the shed, police said. It was loaded with one round in the chamber and two shells in the tube, police added.
Booth admitted that he armed himself with a shotgun, but he denied that he pointed the weapon at the two workers, police reported. But footage gleaned from the dashboard camera contradicted Booth’s version of events, court records show.
