By Alison Knezevich
The Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE — A Baltimore County judge sentenced two men to more than 100 years each for their roles in the 2011 murder of a witness.
Circuit Judge Susan Souder handed down a 115-year sentence Thursday to Clifford Carroll Butler, 24, and a 140-year sentence to Derius Donald Duncan, 25, according to the Baltimore County state’s attorney’s office.
In April, both men were convicted of multiple charges — including first-degree murder and witness intimidation — in the October 2011 death of Ronald Givens, 55, who was found fatally shot on his front lawn in Gwynn Oak. Months before his death, Givens had witnessed Baltimore police arrest Duncan on drug and gun charges.
Prosecutors said Butler and Duncan tried to bribe Givens to lie to authorities and then plotted his murder when he refused.
“Ronald Givens refused to lie in a court of law, and for honoring that simple principle he paid with his life,” said Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah, who was a special prosecutor in the case. “These sentences make it clear that the men who pulled the strings are just as responsible as those who pulled the trigger.”
Vignarajah also said the case “is an excellent illustration” of multiple jurisdictions and agencies working together.
The alleged gunman in the case, David Johnson, is scheduled to stand trial in July on charges including first-degree murder. Keyon Beads, another man accused in Givens’ death, pleaded guilty to charges that included conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
In February, Duncan was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to his role in a sweeping conspiracy by the Black Guerrilla Family gang to take control of the Baltimore City Detention Center, where he was locked up from 2012 to 2013, according to the office of Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.
That case attracted widespread attention at the time, in part because of the complicity of corrections officers and the degree to which inmates were able to access drugs and other contraband through the scheme.
Duncan admitted in his plea agreement to being a BGF member who had a sexual relationship with one of the corrections officers and who “directed the smuggling of contraband into the jail, including cell phones, tobacco and other drugs, through [corrections officers] who received payments, gifts or a share of the profits,” Rosenstein’s office said at the time.