The long-running Seton Hill home invasion case that started with a violent October 2023 break-in has finally been put to bed. On Tuesday, June 23, the last remaining defendant accepted a plea in Baltimore City Circuit Court, closing out a file that has been hanging around with scores of felony counts for more than two years. The incident left a woman shot twice in the thigh and sent investigators chasing multiple suspects across the city.
Plea Deal and Sentence
According to Baltimore Witness, 34-year-old Brian Strawder pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and to using a firearm in the commission of a violent crime. Under the deal, he is set to receive 25 years on the assault charge, with all but eight years suspended, followed by five years of probation, three of those supervised.
The agreement also carries a five-year sentence for the firearm count without the possibility of parole, and that term will run concurrent with Strawder's eight-year active sentence. Prosecutors agreed to drop about 30 remaining counts, and Strawder will get credit for the time he has already served since his December 2023 arrest.
How Investigators Say the Crime Unfolded
Police responded to reports of shots fired on the 800 block of North Eutaw Street and found a female tenant suffering from two gunshot wounds to her thigh. Follow-up reporting shows that investigators later identified multiple people they believed were connected to the home invasion, and arrests started coming in at the end of December 2023.
Those early accounts noted that officers arrested Strawder on Dec. 27, 2023, with additional suspects taken into custody the following day. What began as a sprawling set of charges against several defendants eventually became the trimmed-down case that prosecutors resolved through a series of plea deals and dismissals.
Case History and Co-Defendants
Prosecutors say surveillance footage from the area and other evidence placed Strawder and co-defendant Phillip McCoy at the scene. Investigators also alleged that a third person, Katiera Womack, acted as a lure to draw in the victims before the attack.
Baltimore Witness previously reported that Womack pleaded guilty in November 2024 to a conspiracy charge in exchange for a time-served sentence. McCoy later took a plea in 2025 that followed a similar pattern to Strawder's agreement, with a suspended term stacked over a shorter active prison sentence.
With Strawder now entering his plea, prosecutors say the Oct. 19, 2023, home invasion is officially resolved for all three defendants, closing the book on the Seton Hill case.
Legal Implications
Maryland law requires a separate firearm sentence on top of the punishment for the underlying violent offense. Using a gun in the course of a crime generally triggers a five-year, non-suspendable minimum that is imposed in addition to any other sentence. State case law and statutory materials spell out how that extra time interacts with assault penalties and suspended terms.
Maryland Court of Appeals decisions and related state resources detail the rules for these firearm enhancements and how judges are supposed to apply them.
For Strawder, the deal means serving the active portion of his sentence, then transitioning to supervised probation under conditions set by the court and enforced by his probation officer. Any effort to move out of state during that period would go through standard probation procedures.
The agreement wraps up a case that drew notice for its alleged level of planning and the sheer number of charges filed at the outset. It also adds one more resolved violent-crime prosecution to the ledger from the wave of late-2023 incidents in Seton Hill.
