15 Years for Defendant in Shooting over Marijuana Deal

Per the Office of the State’s Attorney: “Today in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, MD, the Honorable Cheryl McCally sentenced defendant, Tavon Burton, 21, of Gaithersburg, to 20 years in prison suspend all but 15 years to serve and five years of supervised probation upon release. The State requested Burton be admitted to the Patuxent Youthful Offender program and Judge McCally recommended he be admitted to the program while incarcerated.

Burton pleaded guilty on July 24^th, 2023 to first-degree assault for an incident on October 10^th, 2022 when he fired a gunshot at a 21-year old male from whom he planned to purchase marijuana. The victim told police Burton attempted to hand him counterfeit money and a confrontation ensued. As part of the plea agreement, Burton also pleaded guilty to an unrelated burglary charge from January 2021.”

From the statement of charges: “On October 10, 2022, at approximately 1956 hours, the victim, Christian Olaya, reported to Montgomery County Police that he had just been robbed at gun point in the 10100 block of Watkins Mil Place, Montgomery Village, Montgomery County, Maryland, and that the suspect fired oneround at him. Upon arrival,Olaya advised that he met with a subject by the name of Tavon Marquis Burton in the 10100 block of Watkins Mill Place to sell marijuana (“designer rapper weed”) to him. Burton and Olaya had arranged the meeting on a phone “app” and Olaya advised that he would meet with Burton only if he sent a picture of his driver’s license. Burton sent Olaya a photo of his Maryland Identification Card. Olaya advised that he backed his vehicle into a parking space on Watkins Mill Place and Burton entered the vehicle and sat in the front passenger seat. Olaya was selling 4 ounces of the “designer rapper weed” for $1,600 to Burton. Olaya stated that the designer rapper weed was in the trunk. Burton tried giving Olaya cash, but Oyala realized that it wasn’t real money and that the cash Burton was using was fake. Upon Olaya confronting Burton about the fake money, stating “what’s wrong with you?”
Burton pulled out a small black Glock handgun and pointed it at Olaya stating that he was going to kill him and was going to shoot him. Olaya continued to state that Burton told
him, “don’t act like I won’t blow you up”. Burton hit him with the handgun on the left side of his head. After striking Olaya with the handgun, Burton attempted to take Olaya’s cell phone which he was holding in his hand. After a brief struggle Olaya gained control of his phone, then advised he panicked and put his vehicle in drive and intentionally drove quickly into a parked vehicle on Watkins Mill Place in an attempt to get away.

After the impact, Burton exited the vehicle first and stood outside of the front passenger side of the vehicle pointing the gun at Olaya. Olaya exited his vehicle and began to run away from the vehicle. Olaya heard one gun shot, but was not hit. Olaya continued to run and did not see Burton again. Olaya called the police at that point.

One spent 9mm shell casing was recovered in the grass near the front passenger door of Olaya’s vehicle, where Burton was standing after the crash. Security video in the area caught Olaya running from his vehicle, yelling, and one gunshot could be heard. Olaya stated that this was the only time he had met Burton, but was 100% positive that the subject in his vehicle was Tavon Burton and was the same person on Burton’s Identification Card.”

Assistant State’s Attorney Teresa Casafranca handled prosecution of this matter.