On Friday, a Prince George’s County jury found a man from Bowie, Maryland, guilty of second degree murder in the shooting of a grandmother in Hyattsville on Jan. 1, 2020.
According to the State’s Attorney’s Office, Sammie Warren, 26, shot into the home of 56-year-old Filomena Vasquez while she was sitting in her kitchen reading her bible that night.
When police officers responded to the shooting, they found Vasquez suffering from a gunshot wound, according to prosecutors. She died at the scene while officers tried to apply first aid. The officers found 14 shell casings at the front of the residence and bullet holes near the kitchen window where Vasquez was shot, the State’s Attorney’s Office said.
According to prosecutors, police were able to establish that Warren was at the shooting location that night, before immediately driving back to his home in Bowie.
Warren had bought a car from Vasquez’s 29-year-old son a week before the shooting and was trying to get his money back after the car stopped working within a week of the purchase. When his demands were denied he started making threats against the family, according to police.
“This is a tragic incident involving the death of a grandmother who was reading her Bible at the time of her tragic death,” State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said in a news release. “The fact that Mr. Warren was willing to show up at someone’s home, discharge a weapon and take a life is a testament to his complete disregard for humanity and the law.”
Warren was also found guilty of illegally possessing a regulated firearm and using a firearm to commit a crime of violence. He is facing up to 65 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 4.
Braveboy said in the release that the jury’s decision reflects how violent crimes will be prosecuted in Prince George’s County.
“Anyone willing to resort to violence in our county will be held responsible to the fullest extent of the law as this case clearly demonstrates.”
