A 17-year-old boy, who rapped under the name “Baby K,” was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday after pleading guilty to attempted first-degree murder and weapons charges.
Kaeden “Baby K” Holland was 15 when he tried to kill a student on a Prince George’s County school bus last year. His plea deal called for a 25-year sentence with another 35 years suspended, which is ultimately the sentence he received.
The deal also called for Holland to serve his time at the Patuxent Institution, a maximum-security adult prison that offers therapy and counseling programs for youth offenders. Holland was also sentenced to five years probation once he’s released from Patuxent.
In May 2023, the teenager burst onto a school bus and tried to shoot a student, but the gun malfunctioned, authorities said.
“Twenty-five years, that is a significant sentence, it’s top of the guidelines. And it was appropriate in this case because of the planning, the deliberation, the execution of what he wanted, which was to murder a child,” Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said during a news conference Friday after the sentencing.
In court Friday, Alisha Gray, the mother of the child Holland attacked, said her son has been having panic attacks since the incident and still refuses to ride public transportation.
During court proceedings earlier this year, prosecutors argued that Holland is quick to anger and has a history of disrespect for authority going back to first grade. The presiding judge agreed, ultimately deciding before a plea deal was reached that Holland would be tried as an adult, even though more than 80% of similar cases get sent back down to juvenile court.
Holland’s defense argued that risk factors including living in poverty, a lack of parental involvement, neighborhood crime, drug use and exposure to violence made him more likely to commit violence himself.
Holland was shot in the leg when he was 14 years old and has seen multiple friends killed by gun violence, according to lead defense attorney Michael Lawlor.
During Friday’s sentencing hearing, Holland spoke, expressing regret for his actions and apologizing to both the victim’s family and his own.
“God intervened, and (Holland) was unable to successfully complete his mission, but it was clear that he had a mission that day. And it was clear that we had a mission today, which was to hold him accountable and to get justice for our community and our victims, and that’s what we did,” Braveboy said.
The teen has posted several rap songs and music videos under the moniker “Babyk2800,” with some of his videos garnering tens of thousands of views on YouTube.
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