Man gets 30 years in prison for role in 2024 execution-style murder

A Montgomery County judge sentenced a man who was convicted of first-degree murder to 30 years in prison for a 2024 execution-style shooting of a Silver Spring man on Friday, drawing ire from the victim’s family and the county’s top prosecutor.

A jury convicted DeAngelo McRoy, 28, in October of first-degree murder, use of a firearm in commission of a felony, armed carjacking and armed robbery.

McRoy was in a vehicle during the fatal shooting of 35-year-old Delondre Sawyer, who was behind the wheel of a Honda Accord when he was shot in the back of the head on Feb. 7, 2024. His body was left in the woods along Game Preserve Road in Gaithersburg and found by authorities the next day.

McRoy was not accused of being the gunman, but a prosecutor said he orchestrated a carjacking during what Sawyer thought was a drug deal.

On Friday in Montgomery County Circuit Court, prosecutors asked Judge Sharon Burrell to sentence McRoy to a minimum of a life sentence plus 20 years.

“He will get to wake up every day from here on out. And Mr. Sawyer will not,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Teresa Casafranca, explaining that, after the shooting, Sawyer was stripped naked and “dumped like trash” in the woods.

But the judge factored in arguments made by the defense about McRoy, that he was not the gunman and did not know another man who was in the car with them had a weapon. Burrell also said McRoy was a drug addict and his being under the influence of drugs, along with his limited cognitive ability, had to be considered.

She sentenced him to life with all but 30 years suspended, which angered Jasmine Hawkins, Sawyer’s older sister.

“The judge did not take into consideration the lifelong tragedy this family has to suffer,” Hawkins said. “He is a career criminal, and he does not deserve a second chance. The judge embarrassed us.”

McRoy was convicted of an attempted robbery in 2016, prosecutors said.

While giving an impact statement, Hawkins said her father and mother died shortly after Sawyer was killed.

“A broken heart caused my father’s death,” she told The Banner.

Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said he was upset with the judge’s sentencing.

“We are extremely disappointed,” McCarthy said, noting the judge imposed only a fraction of what the sentencing guidelines called for. “The family is devastated.”

Right before he was sentenced, McRoy apologized to the Sawyers, causing Hawkins to leave the courtroom.

“I want to express my deepest condolences to the Sawyer family,” he said. “I never meant to harm anyone that day. ... I never knew this was going to happen.”

District Public Defender Sean Mukherjee said Sawyer’s death was a tragedy but his client had similar life circumstances to Sawyer’s. He noted they were both drug addicts, which sometimes leads to impulsive and irrational decisions. It was pointed out in court that Sawyer stole his family’s car the day he was killed.

Ultimately, Mukherjee said, the most impulsive decision on the day of Sawyer’s death was made by the gunman, Quinnton Brown.

“No one knew that he had a gun. And no one knew he was going to do that — with the exception of Quinnton Brown,” Mukherjee said.

Mukherjee said sentencing McRoy to life in prison would compound the tragedy.

After the shooting, investigators found blood “on and in the vehicle, including several pieces of clothing,” court documents said.

There were three other people in the vehicle when Sawyer was killed.

Court documents said Sawyer’s personal belongings, including a credit card, were stolen and “several individuals then used the victim’s vehicle” until it was recovered by police the next day.

Police found the Accord in Germantown after it was captured on surveillance footage from a Gaithersburg gas station.

McRoy’s codefendant, Brown, 39, was found guilty in July of first-degree murder, armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, armed carjacking, conspiracy to commit armed carjacking and other charges.

Brown’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 1. Another defendant pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to first-degree murder.

Sawyer’s obituary said he was born in Silver Spring and educated in Montgomery County Public Schools.

He was described as a religious man whose “infectious smile and boundless energy lit up every room he entered.”

His family said he was the father of a young daughter.

If McRoy is released from prison, Burrell ordered him to five years of supervised probation. She also credited him with more than 900 days served in jail.