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By ERIC HARTLEY
The Maryland Gazette
A man who opened fire with a shotgun on a security guard who wouldn’t let him back into a party was convicted Thursday of attempted murder.
Terrance Carlester Medley, 25, could face 15 to 30 years in prison under state sentencing guidelines for the shootings last fall at the Odenton Volunteer Fire Company, which also injured two bystanders.
In county Circuit Court in Annapolis, the Davidsonville man entered an Alford plea, which allows him to maintain his innocence while admitting the state had enough evidence to convict him.
Medley, who was drunk at the time of the incident, entered the plea because he said he doesn’t remember the shootings. The consequences are the same as a guilty plea.
The Sept. 10 party at the firehouse was a birthday bash in honor of a man who was in jail at the time, Assistant State’s Attorney Frederick M. Paone said. However, the original liquor license application described it as an “anniversary party.”
Medley had been at the party, but was disruptive and kept going out and coming back in. Finally, about 11 p.m., the guards decided they’d had enough.
“He was told on the way out if he left he couldn’t come back in,” Mr. Paone said.
Medley took offense, coming back with a shotgun - it’s not clear where he got it - and firing away.
One guard, Eric Cleveland of Takoma Park, was hit by shotgun pellets in the back and in his left side. Delvin Eldridge of Baltimore, a guest who was standing near the door at the time, was also hit in the side, Mr. Paone said. And Sharda Smith of Annapolis was hit in the hand.
Medley was also shot in the chest himself, apparently by guards firing back, Mr. Paone said.
After ducking for cover until the shooting stopped, firefighters who were on duty started treating the victims. When county police arrived a few minutes later, the scene was still chaotic. People were running in all directions, shattered glass from a window and door lay on the ground and blood coated the vestibule.
Adding to the mayhem, a 19-year-old Annapolis woman, Erica Williams, was hit by a car and seriously hurt when she ran onto Route 175 to escape the gunfire.
Meanwhile, Medley drove away in a Chrysler Concord sedan, but he didn’t get far: He crashed into a utility pole at Telegraph Road and Pine Avenue, about a mile from the firehouse.
When police got to the crash scene, having been told that the car matched the description of the shooter’s, Med-
ley was sitting inside, a shotgun with a pistol grip right next to him.
Several witnesses identified Medley as the shooter.
The party, which was advertised through fliers left on windshields, led the county liquor board and the fire company to re-examine how applications for such “one-day licenses” are granted.
Thousands of the licenses are issued every year for weddings and parties in the county, but they’re not intended for people who charge a $10 cover and station armed guards at the door, as was done at the Odenton party.
After a stabbing and a fight at two parties at the firehouse in March 2005, the county Board of License Commissioners said the fire company - which makes hundreds of dollars each time it rents its hall out - was signing blank license applications without knowing who was hosting the events.
When the issue was raised again after the shooting, the fire company president said he would “tighten things up.”
Temika Young of Annapolis, who got the license for the Sept. 10 party, was initially turned down because her event seemed to be for profit. But a liquor board member she knew, Melvin Hyatt, helped her get the license when she said the party was only for relatives and close friends.
Mr. Hyatt said he had no idea about the armed guards or the cover charge.
Three other private security guards from the party - not Mr. Cleveland - faced minor criminal charges.
One was convicted of a handgun charge, another didn’t show up for court on a marijuana possession charge and faces an open arrest warrant, and the third, who was charged with taking a Taser to the party, made a deal with prosecutors that landed the charge on an “inactive” docket, which means it won’t be pursued unless he gets in more trouble.
Medley, who will be sentenced June 8, was convicted of attempted second-degree murder, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 30 years, and two counts of first-degree assault, each of which carries a maximum of 25 years.
He was convicted in 1999 and 2001 of drug charges and received suspended sentences after serving some jail time. After another drug conviction, he was sentenced to four years in December 2004.
But Judge Joseph P. Manck - who will also sentence Medley in the attempted murder case - let him out in May 2005 and suspended the rest of the prison time.