SALISBURY, Md.- A Princess Anne man will spend 40 years behind bars for gunning down a man in Salisbury last year.
Wicomico County Circuit Court Judge Leah J. Seaton on Thursday sentenced 28-year-old Johnathon James MeGee to 30 years in prison for second-degree degree, 10 years for illegal possession of a regulated firearm (to be served consecutive to the second-degree murder count) and 10 years for the use of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime, to be served concurrent to the second-degree murder count.
A Wicomico County jury convicted MeGee of the aforementioned charges in June.
Prosecutors said that on June 6, 2018, MeGee got into a fight, along with with other people in the yard of a home in the 600 block of Priscilla Street in Salisbury. During the fight, several people fired handguns. Shawn Johnson, of Fruitland, was struck by gunfire and died.
Wicomico County State's Attorney Jamie Dykes, who commented on the case, said, "The investigation of Shawn Johnson’s murder continues. At least four guns were brandished and fired in broad daylight on June 6, 2018, with children playing a short distance away in Doverdale Park. This is the type of violence that will not be tolerated in Wicomico County.”
According to Dykes, Seaton considered the Maryland sentencing guidelines when ordering this sentence, which in this case, recommended 25 to 40 years of active incarceration for MeGee. The maximum allowable penalty for second-degree murder is 40 years of active incarceration, Dykes said.
Anyone with additional information about this case is asked to contact the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit at 410-749-3101.
