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Baltimore man convicted of killing his brother after setting him up for a robbery was sentenced this week to life plus 30 years in prison, prosecutors said Friday.

Brandon Wilder, 29, was convicted by a jury in July of fatally shooting half brother Ramon Wilder in May 2014. Prosecutors said at trial that Brandon Wilder was “less successful” than Ramon, who made good money selling drugs and often wooed women away from the defendant.

Brandon Wilder got his then-girlfriend Labria Paige to lure Ramon Wilder to the 3400 block of Wilkens Ave. in Southwest Baltimore, claiming she was not interested in Brandon anymore and wanted to be with Ramon.

When Ramon Wilder arrived, Brandon Wilder emerged from the shadows and shot him several times with a revolver. Ramon collapsed in a parking lot and was left to die while Brandon and co-conspirators unloaded items from his vehicle, which was dumped at a hotel near BWI Marshall Airport, police said.

Three others were convicted of participating in the plot, two of whom agreed to testify. Wilder’s defense attorney at trial had questioned their testimony, saying that their stories had changed and that they were trying to receive favorable sentences

“This insensible and vicious murder emphasizes the lack of moral ethics killers have when it comes to the value of human life,” State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby said in a statement. “Anyone who can kill their brother in such a calculated and callous manner deserves to spend their life behind bars.”

Ramon Wilder’s death was part of a series of crimes police linked to the group. Three days before Ramon’s killing, police said, Brandon held up and carjacked an Oxycontin dealer at a shopping center, and two weeks later they say he deliberately ran over a man in the Lakeland neighborhood.

Co-defendant Theodore Grice, 37, was also sentenced Thursday to 25 years for his role in Ramon Wilder’s death. Jurors acquitted him of participating in the murder, but convicted him of conspiracy and carjacking.

Assistant State’s Attorney Sharon Ruth Holback told Circuit Judge Timothy Doory that Grice had a $1,000-a-day drug habit and a long criminal record.

“He has time and time associated himself with criminal activity — and here we are,” Holback said.

But Grice’s defense attorney, Joshua Insley, said his client had only helped Brandon Wilder try to clean up the mess when a robbery became a murder. Grice had checked the group into a hotel and obtained fake IDs for them, he said.

“Teddy’s the one people call when they’re in a” bind, Insley told Doory. “He’s here for being an accessory.”

Insley said Grice was stabbed 24 times while in jail awaiting trial — an attack he alleged was set up by Brandon Wilder.

Grice addressed Ramon Wilder’s mother, who attended the sentencing, saying her son “didn’t deserve to die” and that he was remorseful for poor decisions he had made.

“I don’t know if I was a coward, or afraid to say ‘no.’ I couldn’t say, ‘I’m not going to help you,'” Grice said.

Doory rejected the argument, saying Brandon Wilder could not have committed the crime by himself, making Grice responsible.

“You swooped in like a vulture and helped them accomplish the rest of this crime,” Doory said in handing down the 25-year sentence.

Paige, Brandon’s then-girlfriend, pleaded guilty to felony murder and will receive a 20-year sentence in exchange for her testimony, Holback said.

Another participant, Breauna Diggs, pleaded guilty in the robbery, receiving a two-year sentence in exchange for her testimony.

Diggs received a lesser sentence because she did not participate in planning the murder but was merely with Grice at the time of the shooting, Holback said.

 

Source:  Baltimore Sun