A Gaithersburg teenager was convicted for the fatal shooting of Tenneson Vaughn Leslie, Jr., 18, of Greenbelt, at the Wheaton Metro station in May, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Emmanuel Simmonds, 16, of Gaithersburg, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in a plea hearing on Thursday, the State’s Attorney’s Office said.
During a preliminary hearing in May, a public defender said that Simmonds was a 10th-grade student at Magruder High School at the time of the shooting.
On May 18, shortly before 6 p.m., a group of young males got into a physical altercation on an escalator at the Wheaton Metro station, located at 11171 Georgia Ave., according to charging documents. There were two groups present that did not know each other, the State’s Attorney’s Office said.
The altercation escalated to the point where Simmonds pulled out a gun and shot Leslie in the back of the head, charging documents indicated.
A co-defendant, who was 14-years-old at the time of the murder, is currently facing proceedings in the juvenile court system, the State’s Attorney’s Office said. MoCo360 generally does not identify juveniles accused of crimes.
Montgomery County Police and Fire Rescue personnel, along with Metro Transit Police, responded to the scene and located Leslie unresponsive on the metro platform near the bottom of the escalator, charging documents said. He was transported to the MedStar Washington Hospital Center where he was pronounced dead later that night, according to charging documents.
“This was a shockingly brazen, callous act by a young offender,” State’s Attorney John McCarthy said in an email release. “The defendant executed a young man on a crowded metro platform, not only claiming one innocent life but placing many other people at risk as there were other citizens, simply using the metro system, that easily could have been struck by a bullet.”
Per the plea deal reached last week, Simmonds’ incarceration time cannot exceed 40 years, and the State will request that the judge recommend Simmonds be admitted to the Patuxent Youthful Offenders program while incarcerated.
Through this program, the Patuxent Institute, a maximum-security correctional facility, provides “assessment, stabilization, and transition services to offenders within the department who have serious mental illness,” according to its website.
Simmonds’ sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 28 at the Montgomery County Circuit Court, according to digital court records.
Simmonds’ attorney, Paul Zmuda, was unable to be reached for comment.
