WASHINGTON, D.C. — Jaime Macedo admitted in D.C. Superior Court on Friday that he caused the 2023 death of Maxwell Emerson, a 25-year-old Kentucky teacher who was shot on the Catholic University campus in Washington, entering a guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter while armed.
Judge Neal Kravitz accepted the plea after asking Macedo whether he understood that Emerson was growing more frightened and that the situation had turned dangerous. Macedo agreed the shooting was neither self-defense nor an accident. Under the agreement he faces 12 to 15 years behind bars, and he remains held without bond.
Court filings lay out a morning encounter that began near the Brookland-CUA Metro station on July 5, 2023. Macedo, armed with a loaded handgun, kept pressing Emerson for money. Emerson sent him $300 through Cash App and minutes later messaged his mother that he was being robbed at gunpoint. On campus, Emerson tackled Macedo and the gun went off during the struggle.
Metropolitan Police Department detectives arrested Macedo on July 11, 2023, on a D.C. Superior Court warrant. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia later secured an indictment that included a first-degree felony murder count.
A jury in May found Macedo guilty of illegally having a gun after an earlier conviction but deadlocked on the homicide charges, leading to a mistrial. Kravitz turned down an earlier plea deal in September. Sentencing is set for Jan. 15, 2027.
Section: More Washington DC crime news
Filed under: Washington DC Crime News
