A Middle River man was sentenced to life in prison plus an additional 20 years on Wednesday for gunning down a 23-year-old McDonald's employee through a Gambrills drive-thru window in 2022, closing out a case that spanned more than four years and two counties. Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Morris handed down the sentence to 25-year-old Ja'Quan Dontremique Green for first-degree murder and use of a firearm in a crime of violence.
Green was convicted on January 21 following a seven-day jury trial, according to the Anne Arundel County State's Attorney's Office, which noted the case was prosecuted by Assistant State's Attorneys Glen Neubauer and Murphy Hartford. Notably, Judge Morris did not impose life without the possibility of parole, a legal distinction that, as The Baltimore Banner reports, leaves open the future legal potential for Green to seek parole under Maryland law.
An Overnight Shift Turns Deadly
The shooting happened at approximately 4:45 a.m. on May 13, 2022, at the McDonald's at 1130 Crain Highway South, also known as Route 3, in Gambrills, per the state's attorney's office. The victim, Britrain Marcelus Gray, was a 23-year-old Odenton resident known to family and friends by the nickname Train, according to a July 2022 report from The Washington Post. State's Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said Gray was working the overnight shift at the drive-thru window and was building Happy Meal boxes for kids when the violence occurred, according to CBS Baltimore.
Leitess said the sentence delivers justice for Gray and ensures a dangerous offender is removed from the community, according to the same CBS Baltimore report. Officers who responded found Gray suffering from a gunshot wound inside the restaurant's cash booth area, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, per that outlet's account. Surveillance footage reviewed by investigators showed a black sedan with no visible license plate and blacked-out windows circling the restaurant before the shooting, and the shooter fired three shots from a 9mm handgun at close range.
A Rare Car and a Trail of Digital Evidence
Investigators eventually connected Green to the killing through an unusual combination of forensic and digital evidence. Green was arrested in Upper Marlboro on July 7, 2022, on an unrelated charge in Prince George's County, and police there also charged him in connection with a separate, unrelated fatal shooting from that June in District Heights, according to The Washington Post's July 2022 reporting.
At the time of his arrest, Green was driving a black 2001 Cadillac Catera, a vehicle so uncommon in Maryland that motor vehicle records helped investigators link it to the car seen circling the McDonald's in surveillance video, the state's attorney's office said. A handgun found in Green's possession during that arrest was tested by the Prince George's County Police Department's Firearms Examination Unit and found consistent with firing the three 9mm shell casings recovered outside the drive-thru window, per the same press release.
Prosecutors also pointed to Green's own social media accounts during trial. The BayNet reported that investigators introduced videos showing Green wearing clothing and holding a handgun matching items captured on the McDonald's surveillance footage, evidence that was presented alongside physical items recovered from Green's bedroom under a search warrant, including boots, gloves and a jacket similar to those worn by the shooter.
Case Closed, But Not Entirely
Green was 20 years old and living in Middle River in Baltimore County at the time of the May 2022 shooting, having traveled across county lines before the killing, according to The Baltimore Banner. The combination of ballistics matching, the rare Cadillac model, matching clothing, and social media footage built a case substantial enough for the Anne Arundel County jury to convict him on all counts after weighing seven days of testimony.
With Wednesday's sentencing, the criminal case in Anne Arundel County is formally closed, though the absence of a life-without-parole designation means Green will remain legally eligible to seek parole down the road under Maryland law, as The Baltimore Banner noted. For Gray's family and the Gambrills community, the sentence marks the end of a long wait for accountability in the death of a young man who was simply working an overnight shift.
