In the early morning hours of November 23, 2002, a twelve-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, Detective Thomas G. Newman, was ambushed and killed in what was described as a 'flat-out execution.' The 37-year-old male officer was off-duty and leaving Joe's Tavern in the 1000 block of Dundalk Avenue with his girlfriend at approximately 1:50 a.m. when two men approached and opened fire without warning.
The assailants continued to shoot Detective Newman even after he had fallen to the ground. He was struck multiple times and pronounced dead a short time later at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
The investigation swiftly uncovered that the motive for the murder was retaliation. Detective Newman had been instrumental in the conviction of two men who had shot and wounded him in a previous incident in April 2001. One of the suspects in his murder was the half-brother of one of the men Detective Newman had testified against. On the night of the fatal shooting, this relative, Raymond Saunders, spotted Detective Newman at the tavern and left to gather two associates, Jovan House and Anthony Brown, to carry out the attack.
Within hours of the shooting, all three suspects were apprehended by the Baltimore Police Department. Jovan House, 22, and Raymond Saunders, 24, were identified as the shooters, while Anthony Brown, 36, served as the getaway driver and had informed the gunmen of Newman's location. The case went to trial, and in February 2004, Jovan House was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and two gun charges. Following his conviction, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Raymond Saunders pleaded guilty to the murder and in October of that same year, also received a sentence of life in prison without parole. The final conspirator, Anthony Brown, was convicted in April 2005 of aiding and abetting first-degree murder, use of a handgun in a crime of violence, and conspiracy to commit murder for his role in orchestrating the killing. He too was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, bringing a close to the quest for justice for the murder of Detective Thomas Newman.
