A Howard County jury convicted Charles Richardson Thursday of fatally shooting the 7-Eleven store clerk who reached to unmask him during a botched robbery in April 2007.
Charles Richardson, 26, of Columbia, faces up to life in prison without parole for first-degree felony murder and attempted armed robbery in the slaying of Alevtina Zhilina, 40, at the 7-Eleven store on Columbia Road.
The verdict marked Richardson’s second murder conviction this month. He also faces up to life in prison for fatally shooting 19-year-old Trae Allen less than a month after Zhilina’s death.
At the closing of Richardson’s three-day trial, prosecutors played a surveillance video in which a masked man bursts into the store and shoots Zhilina in the head at close range.
“In a matter of 16 seconds, her life was yanked from her by the greedy and violent hands of Charles Richardson,” prosecutor Kim Oldham told the jury.
“One second before Alevtina was killed, she tried to reach out toward the mask of her killer. She was unable to reveal his identity … but her murder is a ‘whodunit’ no more.”
Multiple witnesses, including Richardson’s brother, testified that he confessed to the shooting and bragged about it making the news.
William Richardson, 23, said his brother awoke him after the shooting and asked him to stow the murder weapon for him.
Defense attorney Mark Van Bavel told the jury not to believe the witnesses, who are “unsavory characters” who may have “personal involvement” in the crime. He said William Richardson was motivated to testify because he made a deal with prosecutors to evade charges of accessory after-the-fact for helping his brother.
Van Bavel suggested William Richardson, a self-proclaimed drug dealer, committed the 7-Eleven crime and then pinned it on his brother to get out of jail.
“He only tells this story when his back is against the wall and iron bars close in front of his face,” Van Bavel said. “He traded his brother for freedom.”
The jury deliberated less than two hours before returning with a guilty verdict.
Richardson will be sentenced on Dec. 4 for both murders.
