An Owings Mills man pleaded guilty Tuesday to shooting to death another man who came up to his car after an argument in a restaurant parking lot.
Lance Backus, 24, of the unit blockof Alexander Court, pleaded guilty in Baltimore County Circuit Court to second-degree murder. He faces up to 30 years in prison for the September 2005 shooting of Melvin D. Green, 25, who suffered a fatal wound in the neck area in the parking lot outside Maria?s Restaurant, Lounge and Carry-Out, in the 11700 block of Reisterstown Road.
“This was a really, really tragic event all the way around,” said defense attorney Margaret Mead. “He?d had a little bit to drink that night,” she said, but Backus “never, ever intended” to kill Green.
Backus and Green were among a group of people who got in an argument outside Maria?s after midnight on Sept. 3, Mead said. Backus got in a car with two others and was ready to leave, she said, when Green chased after and spit on their car.
Witnesses for the state would have said in a trial that Backus was alone in the car and drove slowly around the parking lot to the front of Maria?s, prosecutor David Lemanski said. Things were chaotic in the moments before the shooting, both attorneys said, and there?s conflicting information about some of the details.
Either way, Green approached the driver?s side window and Backus shot him before driving off, court documents say.
Backus is scheduled to be back in court on Aug. 3. Mead said she will argue for a sentence less than the maximum. Backus is a high-school graduate who was working in construction when the shooting occurred, she said, and he has a son who was born shortly after.
Green?s mother could not be reached for comment.
