16-Year-Old Pleads Guilty to First-Degree Murder for Wheaton Metro Shooting

According to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, “In the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, MD, before the Honorable Cheryl McCally, defendant, Emmanuel Simmonds, 16, of Gaithersburg, has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony for the shooting death of 18-year-old Tenneson Vaughn Leslie, Jr. of Greenbelt.

The plea hearing was held yesterday, December 28^th, 2023. Simmonds is scheduled for a sentencing hearing on June 28, 2024. Per a plea agreement, executed incarceration time will be capped at 40 years and the State will request that the judge recommend the defendant be admitted to the Patuxent Youthful Offenders program while incarcerated.

This stems from a shooting on May 18^th, 2023, at the Wheaton Metro Station. Two groups who were strangers to each other became involved in an altercation on an escalator. Simmonds produced a firearm and shot Leslie in the back of the head, as Leslie and his associates were running away from Simmonds’ group.

There is a co-defendant who was 14-years old at the time of the murder. The co-defendant’s case is proceeding in the juvenile court system.

“I thank Assistant State’s Attorneys Peter Larson and Cortenous Herbert for their work in this matter. This was a shockingly brazen, callous act by a young offender. The defendant executed a young man on a crowded metro platform, not only claiming one innocent life but placing many other people at risk as there were other citizens, simply using the metro system, that easily could have been struck by a bullet,” said State’s Attorney John McCarthy.