A Waldorf, Maryland, man has been sentenced to life in prison in connection with the deadly 2020 robbery of a 7-Eleven.
Gregory Deshawn Collins, 23, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole for the killing of 49-year-old Lynn Marie Maher, a mother of four, during an armed robbery at a Waldorf 7-Eleven store in late 2020.
“Collins permanently erased a life from this earth,” Tony Covington, state’s attorney for Charles County, said in a news release. “In my view, when you take someone’s life as this defendant did, you should forfeit your right to live the rest of your life as a free man. So, the sentence was fair and reasonable.”
Law enforcement were called to a 7-Eleven store in the 3300 block of Middletown Road on Oct. 1, 2020, for reports of shots fired. Officers found an employee — later identified as Maher — dead at the scene.
According to prosecutors, Collins had approached Maher at the register and brandished a gun as he announced a robbery. After Maher handed over nearly $250 in cash and showed him the empty register till, Collins pulled the trigger and shot her in the head.
Collins pocketed the money and fled the scene. He was captured in Georgia less than a month later.
Surveillance footage and DNA evidence helped detectives identify Collins as a suspect. Collins later confessed to robbing the store and shooting Maher. This May, he was found guilty in Charles County Circuit Court on first-degree felony murder and armed robbery charges.
