His earlier conviction was thrown out by a higher court.
Frederick, Md (KM) He was set to go on trial for a second time next week, but decided to plead. Larnell Lyles of Frederick on Thursday entered an alford plea to 1st-degree murder for the shooting death of Brandon Brown. Under an alford plea, he doesn’t admit guilt, but acknowledges the state has enough evidence to convict him in a court of law.
Circuit Court Judge Theresa Adams sentenced Lyles to life in prison with all but 60-years suspended. “We believe that to be, in affect, a life sentence for Mr. Lyles. He’s about 30-some years old; has been shot five times. I don’t know if he’ll live quite that long. But if he does, he’ll get out of jail, be put on five-years of supervised probation,” says State’s Attorney Charlie Smith, who argued the case for the prosecution against Lyles.
Lyles was arrested in June, 2015, for shooting Brown in the area of Vermont Court in the Lucas Village area of Frederick. Brown was the driver of an ice cream truck who was handing out treats to children when he was shot. EMS personnel pronounced Brown dead at the scene.
Frederick Police were able to identify Lyles as the suspect, and he was arrested several hours after the fatal shooting.
Lyles was tried and convicted in 2016 of killing Brown. But his conviction was overturned by a higher court because of a problem with police reading his Miranda rights which allow the defendant to have an attorney present during questioning.
Smith says he was ready to try Lyles again, but the family was worried about going through this ordeal againl. So a plea agreement was reached.”It’s tough sometimes as a prosecutor. You got to balance those two things: the public justice piece versus the family. But all in all, we believe it to be a very positive outcome, and just we’re just happy that Lyles is going to jail for the next 60 years,” says Smith.
“It’s just a sad situation,” says Smith. “We have a young man, Brandon Brown, who was shot and killed while serving ice cream on an ice cream in the presence of three little kids. He fell on one of the kid’s scooters.”
By Kevin McManus