Life Term For Attempted Murder

SNOW HILL -- A Worcester County man found guilty of attempted first-degree murder last December for his role in a shooting incident in Pocomoke that left one man dead last May was sentenced to life in prison last week in Circuit Court.

Last May 27, Pocomoke Police responded to reports of gunfire in the area of Laurel Street. Officers arrived and found a victim, Reginald Handy, also of Pocomoke, had been shot several times from behind. Handy was taken to PRMC in Salisbury where he was pronounced dead.

According to police reports, a witness observed an unknown man approach Handy and exchange words with the eventual victim. The verbal altercation turned deadly when the still unknown suspect fired a handgun several times at Handy, striking him in the back, while firing additional shots at another man, later identified as Torrance Davis, who was not struck.

The Worcester County Bureau of Investigation (WCBI) arrived on the scene and began to piece together what happened from witness testimony. The investigation led to the identification of a possible suspect, Alexander Crippen, 36, of Pocomoke, who was later found in a Delaware motel room under a different name. Last June, a Worcester County grand jury indicted Crippen on first-degree murder charges for the shooting death of Handy and attempted murder charges for the shots fired against Davis.

Last November, however, forensic evidence excluded Crippen as the suspect in the shooting death of Handy and the first-degree murder charges against him were dropped. However, the attempted first-degree murder charges against Crippen for the shots fired at Davis proceeded to trial and he was found guilty last December.

A pre-sentence investigation was ordered and Crippen returned to Circuit Court last Friday to learn his fate. He was sentenced to life in prison for the attempted first-degree murder conviction and an additional 10 years for the use of a handgun in the commission of a felony conviction.

In the meantime, last fall a second suspect was identified as the alleged shooter in the death of Handy. Last November, the Worcester County State’s Attorney’s Office charged Skylor Harmon, 21, of Pocomoke, with first-degree murder in Handy’s death, triggering a massive manhunt for the suspect throughout southern Worcester County.

Harmon was apprehended the very next day outside a Wal-Mart in Pocomoke. Harmon is scheduled to appear for trial on first-degree murder charges early next month.