SALISBURY, Md.- A 25-year-old man has been sentenced to 40 years behind bar after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in connection with the death of a woman whose body was found in Johnsons Pond in Salisbury back in October 2020.
The Wicomico County State's Attorney's Office said that Marquez Armstrong appeared in Wicomico County Circuit Court where Judge Kathleen L. Beckstead sentenced him to life in the Maryland Division of Corrections, suspending all but 40 years of that sentence.
Prosecutors said that in the early hours of Oct. 11, 2020, Armstrong traveled to the home of Trisha Lynn Parker on Wyman Drive in Salisbury. Court documents show that the pair, who had been seeing each other for approximately two to three months, got into an argument during which time Armstrong strangled Parker to death.
Prosecutors said Armstrong and an associate then took off Parker's clothing, placed her in a van, and ultimately dumped her body in Johnsons Pond in Salisbury, where a passerby discovered it later that day. After disposing of the body, Armstrong and his associate burned the van.
On Oct. 18, 2021, Armstrong pleaded guilty to first-degree murder of Parker, who left behind 10 children.