Maryland

Judge Denies Man's Request to Withdraw Guilty Plea in MD Target Slaying

The man who pleaded guilty to killing his ex-girlfriend in the parking lot of a Target store in Maryland will learn his fate next month after a judge denied his request to withdraw the plea.

Donald Bricker Jr. twice confessed to shooting 24-year-old Marie Folasade "Sade" Adebayo in Germantown in June and told the judge he was guilty in December.

Bricker was supposed to be sentenced in April, but instead, fired his attorney and asked to withdraw his plea.

On Thursday, a judge denied his request and scheduled his sentencing for Aug. 25. 

Prosecutors have said Bricker, a registered sex offender, "circumvented" the system and purchased an antique-style weapon that operates using black powder through the mail.

Assistant State’s Attorney Debbie Feinstein said Bricker used the replica antique firearm to kill Adebayo the same day he received it. 

A video of investigators interviewing him in his hospital room shortly after the homicide shows him confessing.

“All I can remember is her getting out the passenger side door, and then I shot her and then I shot her again,” he said.

Asked why he shot her, he said he didn’t know.

Adebayo, a graduate of the University of Maryland, had dated Bricker for about six months, her family said. The couple had broken up, but she agreed to meet him in the Target parking lot to talk.

"'Come to closure,' that's what he said to her. So, being the good person that she is, she agreed to it," her mother, Cassandra Atkens, previously told News4.

Witnesses outside the store heard Bricker and Adebayo arguing in a car. Prosecutors say Bricker shot Adebayo when she got out of his truck, and that he then stood over her and fired the handgun at her again at close range.

Atkens never met Bricker and said her daughter didn't know he had been convicted of rape in 2008 and was a registered sex offender.

The University of Maryland, College Park graduate dreamed of helping others by becoming a counselor, her family previously told News4.

"She was so kind and so non-judgmental. She was great," a cousin of Adebayo said.

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