WASHINGTON — A District Heights, Maryland, man who shot the woman who was driving the car he was riding in has been given a maximum sentence: life plus 20 years.
Joseph Poteat, now 31, was found guilty in June of first-degree murder and a gun charge. He was sentenced Friday.
In October 2015, a car driven by Marquita Wimms crashed into an apartment complex in District Heights. When rescuers arrived to extricate Wimms, they found that she had been shot. Video evidence showed Poteat climbing out of the car after the crash and running off.
The two were dating, prosecutors have said. It’s not known why Poteat shot her.
Judge Herman Dawson pointed to Poteat’s lengthy criminal history before handing down the sentence. “There’s not anything glowing in here about you,” Dawson said of the six-page report. The defense asked for leniency, claiming Poteat had a serious problem with the drug PCP.
The judge also heard from the victim’s mother, Laverne Granger. She said Wimms, who was 32 at the time of her death, worked at a cancer treatment center in Greenbelt. “I’m ex-military and I thought I was strong,” Granger told the court. “I’m still trying to pull myself up … which seems to be impossible.”
Poteat, with long dreadlocks and wearing a dark red inmate uniform, opted to speak before his sentencing as well. He gave a general apology to both the victim’s family and to his own, but continued to deny his guilt.
“He apologized for something he said he didn’t do, and that didn’t sit right with me,” Granger said outside the courthouse.
“The judge agreed with us that he is an individual who has no business ever walking the streets of Prince George’s County again,” said State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks. She called this “yet another horrible incident involving what we believe was domestic violence.”
