A Maryland man convicted of gunning down a McDonald’s employee through a drive-thru window has been sentenced to life in prison, plus 20 years, for the killing.
Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Elizabeth S. Morris handed down the sentence Wednesday to Ja’Quan Dontremique Green, now 25, for the 2022 killing of 23-year-old Britrain Marcelus Gray, according to authorities. Morris left open the possibility that Green could eventually be paroled.
The sentence came after a jury convicted Green in January on one count of first-degree murder and one count of using a firearm in a crime of violence.
“This senseless violence stole a young man’s life while he was working the overnight shift at the drive-through window,” State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said in a statement. “Though nothing can undo this tragedy, I hope this sentence brings some measure of peace and closure to Britrain’s family, many of whom endured seeing the horrific evidence of their brother gunned down while he was building Happy Meal boxes for kids.”
Gray was on shift at a McDonald’s in the 1100 block of Crain Highway South just before 5 a.m. on May 13, 2022, when someone walked up to the drive-thru window and opened fire, according to a release from the state’s attorney’s office.
When first responders got to the restaurant, they found Gray inside the cash booth area suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators tied Green to the shooting using ballistic evidence and surveillance video from the restaurant.
“Upon reviewing the surveillance video, detectives observed a black sedan pull around the exterior of the McDonald’s, with no tag and blacked-out windows,” prosecutors wrote. “A short time later, investigators observed a suspect park the car and walk up to the McDonald’s drive-thru window where he then fired three shots from a nine mm handgun at close range as the victim was working inside. The suspect then fled on foot back to his vehicle.”
Green was arrested on July 7, 2022, on separate, unrelated charges. During that arrest, investigators recovered a handgun from his car, a black 2001 Cadillac Catera.
Ballistics testing showed the weapon matched three 9 mm shell casings found outside the drive-thru window, prosecutors said. Detectives also noticed a decal on Green’s Cadillac that matched one seen on the vehicle in the restaurant’s surveillance footage.
Photos on Green’s social media accounts reportedly showed him wearing fur-lined boots and a jacket similar to what the shooter wore in the footage. A search of his bedroom turned up matching clothing items.
During Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors said they couldn’t offer much insight into why Gray was targeted. Assistant State’s Attorney Glen Neubauer told the court there was either no clear motive or one that was “flat-out stupid,” according to The Baltimore Banner.
Neubauer suggested Gray might have appeared in a social media video, posted by a relative, that mocked someone Green knew or the area where he lived.
Green continued to deny involvement in the killing at the hearing, and his attorney asked the judge to leave open the possibility of parole.
“Respectfully, I cannot take responsibility for something I did not do,” Green told the court.
Morris agreed to that request, reportedly calling a sentence of life without parole “essentially a death sentence” and noting that Green was “a child” when the killing happened.
