In the quiet, early morning hours of April 14, 2017, the stillness in Eden, Maryland was broken by the sound of two gunshots. Later that morning, a grim discovery was made in the backyard of a residence on Flower Hill Church Road. A neighbor, glancing out at the property next door, spotted a body and immediately dialed 911. Maryland State Police responded to the scene and identified the deceased as 22-year-old Walter Jaquan Whitehead of Salisbury.
An autopsy would later confirm that he had died from two gunshot wounds, and his death was ruled a homicide.
The investigation into Whitehead's death quickly focused on Marquel 'Flat' Brumskin. Investigators learned that Brumskin was the last person seen with Whitehead on the evening of April 13, 2017. Whitehead's father and his girlfriend both identified Brumskin as the driver of the car Whitehead was in that night. The evidence against Brumskin, while circumstantial, began to mount. A neighbor testified to hearing two gunshots at approximately 1:30 a.m. on April 14th. Cell phone records placed a phone belonging to Brumskin in the vicinity of Flower Hill Church Road around 1:36 a.m., contradicting his statement to police that he had not left his home after 11:30 p.m. the previous night. A crucial piece of physical evidence was a 9-millimeter projectile recovered from Whitehead's body, which matched a bullet found during a search of Brumskin's residence.
In April of 2017, Marquel Brumskin was arrested and charged with the murder of Walter Whitehead. His trial took place in November 2017, where a Somerset County Circuit Court jury reviewed the evidence presented by the prosecution. After deliberation, the jury acquitted Brumskin of first-degree murder but found him guilty of second-degree murder, first and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and the use of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. In March 2018, a judge sentenced Brumskin to a total of 50 years in prison for his role in the death of Walter Whitehead. This sentence was composed of 30 years for the second-degree murder conviction and a consecutive 20-year sentence for the use of a firearm during a violent crime. This was not Brumskin's first encounter with the law, as he had been previously involved in a 2008 murder case in which he pleaded guilty.
