In the early morning hours of April 11, 2024, a dispute between brothers in the 3400 block of Spelman Road in Baltimore, Maryland, ended in tragedy. Devon Thomas, a 27-year-old male, was fatally shot. Responding to a report of a shooting at approximately 7:57 a.m., Southern District patrol officers discovered Thomas with a gunshot wound. Despite immediate medical attention and CPR administered by medics at the scene, he was later pronounced deceased.
The investigation quickly identified
Devon Thomas's brother, Michael D. Conley, then 34, as the suspect in the fatal shooting. The day after the incident, on April 12, 2024, a coordinated effort between the U.S. Marshals and the Baltimore Police Department's Warrant Apprehension Task Force tracked Conley to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. With the assistance of the Winston-Salem Police Department, Conley was arrested without incident.
Following his arrest, Michael Conley was extradited back to Baltimore on June 6, 2024, to face charges for his brother's murder. He was charged with first-degree murder and held without bail at the Central Booking Intake Facility. In a subsequent court appearance on February 6, 2025, before a Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge, Conley pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and firearm use in a violent crime. For the murder of his brother, Conley was sentenced to life in prison with all but 35 years suspended. He also received a consecutive 10-year sentence for the firearm charge and will be subject to five years of supervised probation and registration as a gun offender upon his release.
