He shot and killed his neighbor last year.
Frederick, Md (KM). It’s off to prison for a Frederick man who fatally shot his neighbor last year. Richard Harraday, 63, was found guilty by the judge of 1st-degree murder for the death of Zachary Winters, 28. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
State’s Attorney Charlie Smith says Harraday entered an Alford plea. “Basically, he’s saying ‘look, I’m still maintaining my innocence, but I recognize that the state is going to have ample evidence, proof beyond a reasonable doubt, to convict me. So I’m not going through the jury trial process, the bench trial process,'” he says.
On the evening of February 22nd, 2017, police were called to the 400 block of West South Street for a shooting . They found Winters laying on a floor with a witness rendering aid. Medics arrived on the scene and pronounced him dead.
Prior to the shooting, witness told police Harraday was pounding on the door of an apartment in the 400 block of West South Street, and yelling. “Mr. Winters came out and tried to calm down the situation. An altercation ensued. Mr. Winters did punch Mr.Harradday,” says Smith. “Mr Harraday decided he was going to go back to the garage unit he was living in, retrieve a 38-caliber revolver, and shoot Mr. Winters once in the chest.”
Smith also says Harraday was apparently not sorry for what he did, and the judge decided to give the defendant a life sentence. “Especially, after hearing some jail calls, where Mr. Harraday was admitting that he shouldn’t gotten punched, and went and shot him. His friend is laughing at the time, whoever this woman was he was talking to. It’s very troubling and it shows a total lack of remorse for Mr. Harraday.”
But Winters was remembered at sentencing. “The courtroom was just full of family members. He had a lot of brothers, sisters, children, aunts, uncles, friends; or course, mother and father, grandparents on both sides,” he says. “It was just really an outpouring of support. This guy was really a super guy.”
By Kevin McManus