A Baltimore County couple pleaded guilty Tuesday to a late-August shootout on the streets of Dundalk that ended at a Mars Super Market, with the suspects ditching a gun and a bag of marijuana on the store shelves.
In brief consecutive Circuit Court appearances, 18-year-old Wilson Zeno got assault and drug convictions while Christine Mesaris, 22, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact in the Aug. 30 shootout.
Neighbors on Lombardy Drive told police that a green Ford Escort tailed a white Lincoln Town Car shortly before 7 p.m. that day when the bullets started flying.
Mesaris drove the Lincoln when her boyfriend Zeno, in the passenger seat, told her to stop so he could shoot back at the Escort, prosecutor Michael Fuller said in court.
“Bullets hit cars, hit houses,” Fuller said. One lodged in someone?s china cabinet. Another landed on Sandra Gutermuth?s front porch.
“I walked out and kicked it,” Gutermuthsaid during a break in court. “That?s the way I found it.”
A police helicopter hovered above as Mesaris and Zeno sped off, still under gun fire from the suspects in the Escort, ultimately double-parking at the Mars store in the 7800 block of Wise Avenue, according to court documents.
A surveillance camera caught the pair walking through the store, Fuller said. Zeno put a handgun on a box of Shake ?N Bake.
Mesaris tucked a bag of marijuana behind a bottle of salad dressing, Fuller said.
Zeno also pleaded guilty to possession with the intent to distribute cocaine, stemming from a May incident.
Mesaris declined to comment on her plea outside the courtroom.
Fuller said two men in the car chased Mesaris and Zeno that day; one, Justin Haddix, 18, has been charged with assault and other counts, and the other man has a warrant out for his arrest.
