Shanika Pretlow never even had AIDS.
But she died — suffering gunshot wounds in her head, cheek, back and arm — because a boyfriend thought she did, prosecutors said.
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A confidential witness told police that Brandon Chambers, 25, said “the bitch is going to die before I do,” before he killed her.
“We just miss her terribly,” Pretlow’s sister, Angela Moore, said. “I have four nieces who don’t understand who would do something like this. They are going to grow up without their mother.”
Chambers, who told police he saw someone else shoot Pretlow on the 1800 block of McKean Avenue more than three years ago, pleaded guilty to her murder Monday in Baltimore City Circuit Court. In an agreement with prosecutors, Chambers will likely serve 25 years in prison and receive five years of supervised probation upon his release.
Pretlow died on Oct. 18, 2005, at Maryland General Hospital, according to court records. She tested negative for the AIDS virus, according to the state’s medical examiner.
In November 2005, police said they received information from confidential sources that Chambers was spotted at a nightclub bragging about shooting Pretlow after having sex with her. Another witness told police he had seen Chambers leave a bar with Pretlow on the day of her death and that he was now bragging he “had to kill her.”
When police interviewed Chambers, who lives on the 1300 block of West North Avenue, he denied even knowing Pretlow, said Assistant State’s Attorney Lisa Phelps. But tests of DNA recovered from Pretlow’s body matched Chambers, prosecutors said, and he eventually admitted to having sex with her, but denied killing her.
Chambers declined to speak at the court proceedings Monday, but Pretlow’s mother spoke briefly.
“She truly didn’t deserve this,” Justine McBeth said. “There hasn’t been a day when I don’t think of her.”
Chambers will be formally sentenced Feb. 4.
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