What happened to Michelle Cummings, an innocent victim, can happen to any one of us in today’s climate where guns are used to settle petty disputes and terrorize communities into silence with the no snitching culture.
Angelo Harrod was found guilty of two counts of Attempted 1st Degree murder for trying to kill two young people who were on their way home from a date—unleashing a hail of bullets into their car while they cowered inside of it. One of those bullets travelled past them and killed an innocent wife and mother who was in town to celebrate her son’s induction into the U.S. naval academy.
Harrod was convicted of 1st Degree Murder and Conspiracy in the killing of Michelle Cummings and will face up to life in prison without parole as well as up to four additional life sentences when he is sentenced in February.
Fortunately, and despite many uncooperative witnesses who think removing a killer from the street is a bad thing—the Annapolis Police Department and Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office worked tirelessly to locate, investigate and prosecute the defendant.
I would like to thank Assistant State’s Attorneys Jason Steinhardt and Carolynn Grammas who dedicated countless hours of trial preparation to successfully prosecute this case as well as the amazing police work by Annapolis Police Department, and lead Detective Aaron Stein. The State’s Attorney’s office is also fortunate to have John Foster, our Demonstrative Evidence Specialist who assisted police and prosecutors in assembling and presenting all of the video, audio and photographic evidence to the jury throughout the trial. In addition, I thank the FBI for their expert witness assistance as they provided us with ballistics and bullet trajectory analysis in this matter.
Today, justice has been served with this conviction and I hope that the Cummings family and the two surviving victims receive some peace of mind with today’s verdict.