A Hebron man will spend decades behind bars for a 2024 gunfight that left a Salisbury bystander dead on North Division Street. Logan Anthony Trader, now 25, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of 49-year-old Richard Darlington Smith, who was simply walking down the block when bullets meant for someone else struck him.
Wicomico County Circuit Court Judge S. James Sarbanes sentenced Trader to 40 years in prison, according to WMDT, which reported that all but 25 years of that sentence were suspended. A separate account from wgmd.com likewise reported that all but 25 years were suspended. Both outlets agree Trader will serve five years of supervised probation once he is released.
The violence traces back to February 16, 2024, when Trader and another person exchanged gunfire on North Division Street following a dispute over a previous drug transaction, per reporting cited by Yahoo News. About five minutes later, Trader circled the block and fired an AR-15-style rifle down the street toward the other person's home. Smith was walking along North Division Street at the time and was struck twice from behind, dying from the wounds.
Police Converged on the Scene That Night
Maryland State Police responded to the 900 block of North Division Street at about 8:10 p.m. that night for a report of a shooting, according to wmdt.com's initial coverage. Salisbury Police and the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit launched a joint homicide investigation in the hours that followed. Trader pleaded guilty on July 28 to one count of second-degree murder and was held in custody afterward while a presentence investigation was completed.
Wicomico County State's Attorney Jamie L. Dykes said the illicit drug trade results in senseless violence, and described Smith's death in stark terms. “This victim's death as a result of Trader's reckless and wanton conduct was completely unnecessary and absolutely avoidable,” Dykes said, per the Yahoo News account. Trader could face an additional 15 years in prison if he violates the terms of his probation after his release.
A County Grappling With a Rising Body Count
The case lands amid a documented spike in lethal violence across the county. Dykes told WBOC that the number of murders in Wicomico County doubled in 2024 compared with the prior year. She attributed the trend to a mix of factors, saying illegal firearm possession was chief among them, alongside gang violence and a broader desensitization to violence in popular culture and social media. Dykes added that the most troubling part of the pattern was how involved young people have become in committing these crimes.
Statewide figures from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions show Maryland's overall gun homicide rate actually dropped 14% in 2024 compared with 2023, even as the state's gun suicide rate climbed 10% over the same span. Maryland ranked 11th in the nation for its gun homicide rate that year, and firearms remained the leading cause of death among the state's young people ages 1 through 17, according to the same data.
Other recent Salisbury-area cases point to a similar pattern of gun violence working its way through the courts. A 19-year-old from the city was reported to have been sentenced to more than a decade for a gang-related shooting that occurred in October 2025. Another Salisbury man was reported convicted of second-degree murder for a deadly shooting from the summer of 2025, stemming from what was described as an offensive comment.
Under Maryland law, the statute governing Trader's conviction defines second-degree murder simply as any murder that does not meet the criteria for first-degree murder, according to the Maryland General Assembly. For Smith's family, the legal distinction offers little comfort: a man walking down North Division Street lost his life in a dispute that, by prosecutors' account, had nothing to do with him at all.
